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ADVERTISEMENTS 



ULYSSES WARD, 

Pennsylvania Avenue, 

Corner of Second Street, near the Rail Road Depot, 

WASHINGTON CITY, D. C. 

Has constantly on sale all the standard Religious, Theological 
Temperance, Classical and Common School Books, to- 
gether with Stationery, &c, &c. 



©!)C Columbian Jbmttatn, 

A neat and useful penny paper, published daily, in the city 
of Washington, D. C, by 

ULYSSES WARD & SON, 

at their office on Pennsylvania Avenue, will be sent to subscri- 
bers at $3 a year in advance, It will afford persons at a distance 
a fine opportunity to obtain all the news at a low rate, besides a 
vast amount of Moral and Literary information. 



THE WEEKLY FOUNTAIN, 

Will be mailed to distant svlscrilcm uc one aotlar a year. 



WORTHINGTON G. SNETHEN, 
Counsellor at Law, Washington, D. C. 

Practices in the Supreme Court of the United States, in the 
Courts of Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia, and 
acts as Agent in Drosecuting all manner of Claims against the 
United States before Congress, the several Departments, etc. 



IN PREPARATION, 



AND WILL BE PUBLISHED AS SOON AS COMPLETED, 



WITH A 



SPLENDIDLY ENGRAVED LIKENESS, 



THE LIFE 



OF THE LATE 



Bey. NICHOLAS SNETHEN, 



MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL 



IN THE 



METHODIST PROTESTANT CHURCH, 



BY 
WORTHING TON GARRETTSON SNETHEN 

COUNSELLOR AT LAW. 



NOTICES. 

From the Rev. E. Y. Reese. (Methodist Protestant,) JLug. 8, 1846. 

A VOLDME OF SERMONS EY THE LATE REV. NICHOLAS SNETHEN. 

Through, the polite attention of the publisher of these Discourses— 
Rev. U. Ward, Washington city — we have been permitted to ex- 
amine them in the sheets. They are not yet out of press 5 but will 
be ready for delivery about the first of September ensuing. 

The name of Snethen, in connection with this volume, will ex- 
cite large expectations. The memory of his stirring eloquence is yet 
fresh in the hearts of those who in former days were permitted to 
listen to his silvery voice, and sympathise in his pious and sublime 
emotions. Others who may have never enjoyed this privilege, have 
yet heard of his astonishing power and unparalleled success as a min- 
ister of Jesus Christ, and will, of course, expect to find in this vol- 
ume, some intimations of the author's intellectual strength and splen- 
dor. 

Mi-. Snethen was emphatically an extemporary preacher. As 
such, perhaps no man was ever more philosophical and systematic. 
His pathos was also at times irresistible and overwhelming. His ef- 
forts admirably combined the doctrinal with the practical 5 and pos- 
sessing a mind richly stored with the treasures of Natural Science, 
he was able continually to illustrate and enforce the more abstruse 
points in theology by striking and simple analogies found in the phy- 
sical world. The most cultivated minds were charmed with his 
quickness of discrimination, and his aptitude to elucidate ; and the 
most illiterate were spell-bound, and enchained by the charm of his 
oratory and the wisdom of his instructions. More than one of his 
former friends and auditors in this city and elsewhere, if interrogated 
in reference to the power of Snethen's preaching, would say with 
the emphasis of true feeling: — 

" He was a man — take him for all in all 
We ne'er shall look upon his like again." 

The Sermons now published, are Recollections, written at the age 
of nearly sixty-nine, (almost three score and ten,) of the author's 
thoughts and sentiments in earlier life. He regrets, in the prefatory 
remarks, that he had not written them out at the time when their 
impressions were most distinct, and commends it as highly impor- 
tant to an extemporary speaker, " who relies mostly upon his feel- 
ings, if he wishes to preserve his best thoughts in the best forms of 
expression, that he should commit them to writing, and not trust to 
future excitements." He moreover adds, " Many parts, which were 
considered best at the time of their delivery, are now irrecoverably 
lost, by the neglect of writing them down, thro' a series of years, 
and this neglect being occasioned, in part, from too great a confi- 
dence in the memory, as though it partook not of our mortal nature." 

We confess that we were apprehensive, from the natural decay of 
intellect in advanced years, that we should not find, in the volume 
before us, much of Snethen as he was in his palmy days. But in 
this we have been agreeably disappointed. The very first discourse 



IV NOTICES. 

in the book brings out the author as himself; — and those who are at 
all familiar with recollections of his noble appearance and fine de- 
livery, will be able almost to live over the past. The Sermon is 
Nicholas Snethen from beginning to end! The close thinker — the 
student of philosophical analogies — the fervent Christian — the re- 
pose of calm discrimination, relieved by occasional outbursts of ora- 
torical climax — are all before you. At the close, you feel that quiet 
and peaceful sensation so often realized after the hearing of a good 
sermon; and an almost irresistible inclination to read it over again. 
We intended at present to write only a very brief acknowledg- 
ment of the receipt of these pages, but have been drawn out beyond 
our design. We shall hereafter give a more extended notice, with 
extracts from the discourses. Are we expressing ourselves too 
strongly, when we hope that every minister in the Methodist Pro- 
testant Church will forthwith secure a copy of the work? 



From the Rev. A. Webster, Baltimore, vlugust, 1846. 

REV. N SNETHENS's SERMONS. 

It is well known to many, that the Rev. Nicholas Snethen was 
one of the most intelligent, eloquent and forcible preachers of his day. 
An ardent Methodist, though ever a liberal and devoted Christian, 
he preached over a large portion of the United States, with great ac- 
ceptability and usefulness. Gifted with a high order of intellect and 
with the brilliance of true genius, the agreeable companion and un- 
wavering friend of the talented and judicious Bishop Asbury, he ef- 
fected much toward the popularity and usefulness of American Me- 
thodism. 

By him, Bishop Asbury was regarded and venerated as the Father 
of the Methodist Community in this country ; and to the latest hour 
of his own long and beneficent life, he spoke and wrote of him with 
the warmest affection and eulogistic respect : and though some have 
questioned and even censured the Bishop's administration, Mr. Sne- 
then's publications and copious private correspondence will show, 
that he never impeached the motives of that great man, nor ceased 
to think his movements wise, and his life a great blessing to the coun- 
try and mankind. To those who desire to know Mr. Snethen's the- 
ory in the case, it will be enough to state, here, that, at the decease 
of Bishop Asbuiy, he looked upon the surviving Methodist preachers 
as being the Bishop's sons in the gospel ; and wished the Economy of 
American Methodism to have been so modified, as that no one of the 
Brethren should assume the vacant relation of the Parent. Whether 
his theory were scriptural or reasonable 5 in this free land, each must 
determine for himself. He saw evidence enough to satisfy his own 
mind, and to determine his own decisions and Church relation : but 
neither this, nor any other favorite hypothesis ever deadened his 
sense of the important annunciation of the inspired Apostle, — " The 
greatest of these is Charity :" for it may as truly be said of him, as 
of any other, that he lived and died in charity with all, Thus much 
upon this delicate point, may be said, we hope, without offence. 

As a preacher, it must be admitted, that neither his high estimate 
of human liberty nor the fervors of his wonderful genius, could turn 
Mr. Snethen aside from an earnest and orthodox ministry of the gos- 
pel, which he indeed believed, felt and saw to be the power of God unto 



NOTICES. V 

salvation. Such a preacher could not but be unique, original ; but 
never was he so at the expense of orthodoxy. His great intellect was 
employed, not in attacking and degrading the doctrines that had 
been instrumental in his own salvation, but in elucidating them by 
the blaze of his gifted mind, and in heralding them by the silvery 
tones of his matchless oratory. The intelligent reader of the following 
sermons will have proof enough of this, as he proceeds along that 
glittering path of the preacher's magnificent mind. At almost every 
step, he will think himself arrived at some delightful novelty, which 
will turn out to be but a venerable and permanent truth, whose very 
dimness and rust sparkle and flash in the beams of refulgent thought. 

The true minister of the gospel is as a candle in its being consumed 
by the burning, illuminating light. Such was Mr. Snethen. The 
brilliance with which many passages of scripture shine in these Ser- 
mons, is wonderful. One cannot conceive how they could be more 
luminously exhibited. They are as thoroughly lustrous, as though 
not only the wick, but the whole oleaginous substance itself were in 
a transparent flame. Indeed, for originality and power of illustration, 
beautiful and instructive philosophy, the sweetest spirit of charity, 
and most impressive intellectuality, these sermons, though the im- 
perfect Recollections of what they were, when first presented by the 
extemporaneous oratory of their admirable author, are not likely to 
be presently surpassed. For many years to come, and long after the 
echoes of his musical voice shall have become silent in the death 
cold ear of the last of his surviving auditors, will these stores of 
thought be the treasure of the pious, intelligent, studious reader ; 
who, at every successive perusal, will find the more to study, the 
more to admire. 

And, really, no one, especially if he be a minister of the gospel, 
should be satisfied with a single reading of such a book as this ; which 
should be kept at hand, and read repeatedly, until that familiarity 
and edification, which distinguished an acquaintanceship with its 
sainted Author, shall be, in some part at least, secured from his 
printed Recollections. In his society every one was safe. His purity 
of conversation, his utter avoidance of all fanciful heresies, his re- 
pect for the absent and the dead, his forbearance toward the few who 
ranked themselves his enemies, his earnest spirituality, his exhaust- 
less fund of literary and practical information, kept the too usual 
social evils in awe of the wise and holy man : and those favored with 
his courteous fellowship felt that they had no peril to dread from his 
eye or his tongue. So with this delightful production of his pen. 
One may hand it to his dearest on earth with a smile of confidence. 
The imm :1 soul has nothing to fear at its entrance within these 
peaceful 1 I spiritual precincts. Here will he never read lessons of 
envy or malice ; and he must be strangely indurated against the 
charming influences of gospel charity, who can depart from this vo- 
lume's final page, without a consciousness of having acquired, in com- 
munion with a pure and gifted friend, an increased love for God, and 
a heartier good will towards all mankind. 

For no deadly drug of bigotry has been steeped in this peaceful cup. 
No deafening thunder of useless controversy, no blinding lightning 
of polemic ire, mars the radiant serenity of this cloudless sky. The 
Sun of Righteousness is its benignant glory. His beams corruscate 
in the pure words of the Christian preacher, and light the inquiring 

1# 



VI NOTICES. 

reader into some of the noblest researches of Christian Philosophy. 
May a book so valuable occupy that prominence in the Sacred Lit^ 
erature of our Country which it so justly deserves. 
Baltimore, 1846. A. WEBSTER. 



Washington, August 28th, 1846. 

I have read with much carefulness and pleasure, several Sermons 
of the late Rev. N. Snethen, a part of the volume now in course 
of publication by Rev. U. Ward, of this city. Having been honored 
by an intimate acquaintance with the author while living, I had an- 
ticipated, from his eminent learning and elevated piety, a rich treat 
in the perusal of his Discourses, which has been even more than 
realized. The unique and original style, profound and philosophic 
thought, catholic spirit and scriptural purity which characterize 
them, together with their perfect practicalness— present a sufficient 
commendation to ensure their general reading and popularity The 
fruits of a deeply pious and highly cultivated mind, they alike en- 
lighten the understanding and impress the heart, and their publica- 
tion cannot fail to prove greatly promotive of the cause of truth and 
holiness. 

SAMUEL K. COX, 
Pastor of the 9th St. M. P. Church, Washington City. 



From the Rev. A. H. Bassett, (Zanesville, Western Recorder,) 
August 20, 1846. 

SNETHEN'S SERMONS. 

The Protestant of the 8th inst., announces that the " Volume of 
Sermons by the late Kev. Nicholas Snethen," which has been so 
long in contemplation, will be ready for delivery about the first of 
September. We truly say with the Protestant, that " we hope that 
every minister in the Methodist Protestant Church will forthwith 
secure a copy of the work;" and we might add laymen too; so that 
they might have something to remember the " old man eloquent." 



It was said of him by Bishop McKendree, that he was like the 
Ohio River— -clear-— rapid — deep. 






SERM 




THE LATE 



NICHOLAS SNETHEN, 

M 

MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL, 

IN THE METHODIST PROTESTANT CHURCH. 

WRITTEN BY HIMSELF, 

IN THE SIXTY-NINTH YEAR OF HIS AGE. 

EDITED BY 

WORTHINGTON GARRETTSON SNETHEN, 

COUNSELLOR AT LAW. 

st Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing be fast." 

SECOND EDITION. 

WASHINGTON, D,C. 

PUBLISHED BY ULYSSES WARD, 

2846, 



I THE LIBRARyJI jfeX^^?) 

or comgebm U .^ 5TT 5 4 

WAfMllfOTOlfB \%A*G>0~ 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1846, by 

ULYSSES WARD, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of 
Columbia. 



CONTENTS 



DISCOURSE I. 
The One Mediator.— I Timothy, ii. 5—6 - "19 

DISCOURSE II. 
The Poor in Spirit.— Matthew, v. 2—3—4. - - 42 

DISCOURSE III. 
Free Grace. — Romans, viii. 32. - 62 

DISCOURSE IV. 
Faith in the Son of God.— John iii. 16. - 5 84 

DISCOURSE V. 
Gospel Repentance. — Acts v. 31. - - » 106 

DISCOURSE VI. 

The Law of Faith — Romans iii. 27— 31. - - 128 

DISCOURSE VII. 
Justifying Faith.— Romans iii. 23—26. - - - 151 

DISCOURSE VIII. 
The Christian Character. — II Corinthians i. 12. - - 178 

DISCOURSE IX. 

To know Jesus Christ.— Philippians 3. 7—11. - - 198 

DISCOURSE X. 

Religious Divisions. — Genesis xlv. 24. - - - 216 

DISCOURSE XI. 

God's Righteousness. — Romans x. 1 — 4. - - 239 

DISCOURSE XII. 

The Faith of Noah.— Hebrews xi. 7. - - - 259 

DISCOURSE XIII. 
The Faith of Moses.— Hebrews xi. 24—26. - - 283 

DISCOURSE XIV. 
The Hope set before us.— Hebrews vi. 18—19—20. - 308 

DISCOURSE XV. 
St. Paul's Desires.— Colossians i. 9—14. - - 333 

DISCOURSE XVI. 
The Resurrection. — Philippians iii. 12 — 13 — 14. - 355 

DISCOURSE XVII. 
That ye sin not.— I John ii. 1—2. - - - 372 

DISCOURSE XVIII. 

The Moral Sacrifices.— Hebrews xiii. 15—16. - - 388 

DISCOURSE XIX. 
The Day of Salvation.— Isaiah xii. 1—2. - - 403 

DISCOURSE XX. 

The Progress of Faith.— Romans i. 17. - - 426 

DISCOURSE XXI. 
The Law of Love. — Hebrews xiii. 1. - « 436 

DISCOURSE XXII. 

The Spirit of Adoption.— Galatians iv. 4—7. - - 465 



Unto all the Methodist Churches through- 
out the United States and Great Britain, 
with all that in every place call upon the 
name of J e s u s Christ our Lord, both theirs 
and ours. 



ADVERTISEMENT. 

The manuscript of the present volume of Sermons is 
from the pen of the Author himself, who committed them 
to writing at Cincinnati, in the winter of 1838. In giv- 
ing them to the public for the first time in print, the 
editor has been careful not to vary a single expression 
or word in the original, but to send them forth as they 
came from the hands of the writer — unchanged, un- 
touched. The subjoined letter will not fail to arrest 
the attention of the readers of these discourses, and par- 
ticularly of those who wefe once his hearers. 

Washington City, D. C, September, 1846, 



Princeton, Indiana, October 31st, 1843. 
Dear Son : I send you my manuscript Sermons. 
I have taken some pains to make them legible. The 
leading thoughts in them were connected with my most 
successful efforts. A combination of circumstances led 
to the neglect of writing those discourses down at the time 
I delivered them, but the main one I have mentioned in 
the preface ; — namely, Iivas not fully aware how memo- 
ry would be affected by age. So, when I made this at- 
tempt to commit them to paper, I remembered that Iliad 
forgotten, and found that the primary feelings were past 
never to return. An attempt to revive rhetoric under 
these conditions, is worse than useless. It may be 
doubted if poets could even do it. Among the practical 
errors of our old uneducated extemporizing itinerants, 
who depended upon religious feelings for their inspira- 
tions, all they had to depend upon, was their almost en- 
tire inattention to the natural decay of the feeling 
power, and of the memory in old age. Though many 
of us came to know or fore-know these facts, our con- 
victions were not strong enough to counteract old ha- 
bits. Sometimes, for some days, before I delivered 
those discourses which made the greatest impression up- 
on the hearers, my feelings burned within me with an 
almost unrestrainable ardor. In the midst of such emo- 
tions is the time to write, for then one can write as well 
as speak, which it is impossible to do when they are 
wanting. Your affectionate father, 

NICHOLAS SNETHEN 
To Worthington G. Snethen, Esq., 

Washington City, D. C, 



TH ET 



RECOLLECTIONS 



OF AN 



ITINERANT 



AND 



EXTEMPORARY PREACHER, 



WRITTEN BY HIMSELF 



IN THE 



Sixty ninth year of his age, 



** Gather np the fr a g m ents , — I e t nothing be lost S 



PREFACE 



A high degree of self-knowledge implies fore- 
knowledge. We know not, how we shall feel and 
think and act or speak, in unknown conditions and 
circumstances. And all the future is unknown to 
us. It is common, to hear people say, in unusual 
cases, that they never shall or never can forget, and 
yet, the things that seem to be so indelibly im- 
pressed upon the memory, may be forgotten, while 
those of less regard may be remembered. Expe- 
rience proves, that the most pleasurable feelings and 
their most immediate effects, are not always re- 
membered the longest, or with the greatest dis- 
tinctness. Persons, whose youth has passed away, 
without the acquisition of the elements of lit- 
erary knowledge, who, after becoming religious, 
under the excitement of religious feelings, have 
begun to speak in public, and in time, to be re- 
garded as popular and successful extemporary 
preachers, are apt to rely upon their memory of 
those discourses, or parts of discourses, which were 
delivered under the most powerful emotions of 
their pious feelings^ and appeared to produce the 
greatest degree of good effect upon their headers. 
Or, if they distrust their memory, trust, that with 
the return of their good feelings, the same thoughts 
2 



XIV PREFACE. 

and words, will also return, and there have not been 
wanting" old preachers, who have favored this 
opinion. But, its natural tendency, is to induce 
a neglect of reading and writing, and especially 
the latter. 

Now, there seems to be no reason to doubt, 
that our stronger and more habitual feelings, 
have much influence in producing or governing 
our thoughts and words, and in some instances, 
\\\\\ only voluntarily, but also against our wills; 
but what evidence, have we from experience and 
observation, to lead us to believe, that our reli- 
giour feelings will continue, or can, by any means, 
be continued, in equal degrees, in fatigue and 
disease, and particularly in old age, though our 
religion may remain the same in degree? Reli- 
gious feelings, like ail other feelings, appertain to 
our living bodies, and must, of course, be more 
or less under the influence -~A their varying states 
and conditions. A degree of feeling, in the pulpit, 
which might be in a high degree pleasing and 
successful in a younger preacher, might over- 
power an older one. 

When, therefore, an extemporary preacher, 
whose memory, for the first eighteen or twenty 
years of his life, was but little exercised in let- 
ters, or the rules of literary composition, finds it 
difficult to incorporate these rules into his mind 
or memory, (as he will be apt to do,) so that 
they shall seem rational to him ; he will also find. 



PREFACE. XV 

as he grows old, that his recollection of them will 
begin to become unsteady. Here then, are two 
causes of the failure of memory, in uneducated 
extemporary preachers; first, the want of the early 
exercise of the faculty in the rules of thought 
and of language, and secondly, the natural decay 
of the faculty. The first impressions upon the 
memory are generally remembered the longest. 
Thus, we can account for the frequent examples 
of old preachers feeling in their pathos ; and be- 
coming common-place in their argument or mat- 
ter, though they give evidence of continued piety 
and zeal. How important, then, is it to an ex- 
temporary speaker, who relies mostly upon his 
feelings, if he wishes to preserve his besit thoughts 
in the best forms of expression, that he should 
commit them to writing, and not trust to future 
excitements ! 

We call these discourses, recollections, as we re- 
member many parts of- them to have been consider- 
ed the best, at the time of their delivery, which are 
now irrecoverably lost, by the neglect of writing 
them down through a series of years, and tills ne- 
glect being occasioned, in part, from too great a con- 
fidence in the memory, as though it partook not of 
our mortal nature. 

Much of the knowledge we gain by experience 
comes too late for us to profit by it ; but do we not 
owe it to those who 'have time and strength to re- 
duce their knowledge to practice, to endeavor to 



XVI PREFACE. 

prevent or correct their errors and mistakes, by show- 
ing them our own ? We have cause to regret the 
silence of our seniors, upon these important subjects 
of feeling and memory, and their relative associa- 
tions. How can every generation grow wiser than 
the previous one, unless the knowledge of the old 
is communicated to the young, in the same profes- 
sions or callings? But let no one undervalue re- 
ligious feelings as means of stimulating the mind. 
Many persons who had grown to manhood, with little 
or no education, have, through them, become truly 
pious and also useful preachers. We mean only, 
to caution good men against overvaluing them, by 
showing what they cannot do. They cannot com- 
pensate the want of twenty years of education, 
they cannot retain their energy in sickness and old 
age, and sustain the memory of what was acquired 
after the faculties have grown to maturity, by their 
influence alone. The great advantage of early ele- 
mentary instructions in religious doctrines or princi- 
ples, in this relative view, is very evident; and also 
the advantage of committing to writing, our best 
thoughts and words as conceived and delivered un- 
der the excitement of our holiest and most ardent 
emotions. 

Now these remarks are of scarcely less impor- 
tance to hearers, than to extemporary preachers 
themselves, to guard them against a prejudice too 
common, that writing deadens the feelings of preach- 
ers, and that uneducated men make the most lively 



PREFACE. XTU 

and powerful speakers. This prejudice is ap: to be 
reciprocated between preachers and hearers. The 
error respecting the inspiration of preachers, also, is 
fostered by this mutual opinion of the all-sufficiency 
of good feelings to produce thoughts and to preserve 
the memory of them. Under the first impressions, 
the effects of these good feelings do indeed seem 
like inspiration and to savor of infallibility. But 
let it be admitted, that preachers of different de- 
nominations have these feelings, and that their ef- 
fects upon them are nearly similar, however they 
may differ in doctrines and practice ; each believes 
these feelings peculiar to his own order, and regards 
them as proofs, that the doctrines they preach are true. 
The doctrines, they say, come from the feelings 
and the feelings come from God, — must not they 
therefore, be true? But the fact is not taken into 
the argument, that the doctrinal theory or principle 
may be adventitious and not suggested by the feel- 
ings. 

One, who had grown to mature years, without 
religious instruction, living among Deists, Socini- 
ans, Mystics, and Antinomians, on the land and on 
the water, in the vicinity of a commercial city, 
during the American Revolution and the overflow- 
ings of the infidelity of the French Revolution, 
when he began to preach under the excitement of 
his religious feelings, could hardly fail to find much 
difficulty in framing a simple form of doctrinal or 
theoretical propositions. All the controversies against. 
2* 



XVZ1S PREFACE. 

the positive announcements of Scripture, tend to 
negatives or to no definite practical opinions ; hence, 
the injurious effects of habitually hearing them in 
opposition to asserted or declared truths, (and noth- 
ing being proved to be true in place of them,) will 
be long felt. In the selection of tests, no desire 
may be experienced to make a system, but to dis- 
cover the plainest method of explaining a scriptu- 
ral system. But should not the scriptural system 
be explained in the words of scripture? So it is often 
affirmed. Let the trial be made by questions and 
answers, beginning with words or terms. What is 
faith? What is justification? What is justifica- 
tion by faith ? Will it suffice to answer, faith is 
faith? An uneducated man, who professes reli- 
gion, may have every thing to learn, though his 
feelings prompt him to learn every thing. He 
may preach extemporally until he is near sixty- 
nine years old, and may then propose to himself, 
to test his memory, to ascertain what he has left, or 
how much he remembers of what he once knew. 
Behold, a specimen of his recollections! 

NICHOLAS SNETHEN. 

Cincinnati } February, 1838. 



DISCOURSE FIRST 

THE ONE MEDIATOR. 



For there is one God, and one mediator, between God and merij 
the man Christ Jesus; who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testi 
fied in due time. I. Timothy ii, 5. 6. 



The context is, that God will have all men to 
be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 
It might be asked, then, who hath resisted his will? 
Must not all men, therefore, be saved and come to 
the knowledge of the truth ? The text itself seems 
to meet the question. There is one Mediator, 
through whom God wills them to be saved. God 
wills some acts to be done immediately, and other 
acts to be done mediately. In the latter cases his 
will may be disobeyed. When he wills that there 
should be light, we hear of no medium, no media- 
tor. He said " Let there be light," and light was. 
But, when the Lord said to the Prophet; " Oh ! son 
of man, I have set thee a watchman to the house 
of Israel," and he adds, "therefore, thou shalt hear 
the word at my mouth, and warn them from me," 
he wills, that the house of Israel should hear his 
word mediately. The voice of the prophet was the 
medium. It follows, when, " I (the Lord) say un- 
to the wicked, ' Oh ! wicked man, thou shalt surely 
die !' if thou dost not speak, to warn the wicked of 
his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, 



00 DISCOURSE FIRST. 

but his bleed will I require at thine hands," It is, 
then, supposed, that the wicked may not hear, 
through the fault of the medium. If God had spo- 
ken immediately or directly to the wicked man, he 
must have heard, whether he obeyed or not. The 
principles or causes of immediate and mediate ope- 
rations are to be found everywhere in nature and 
art, as well as in religion. Primary moving powers or 
causes in physical and mechanical movements, may 
operate with or without media. Wheels, springs, 
levers, screws, and pullies are media, through Avhich 
primary powers may operate, and also voluntary 
and rational agents. But, it is well known, that 
fche actions of all prime movers and agents may be 
modified by media, and so affected, that the media 
only may be apparent. So the word of God to the 
Prophet was not audible to the wicked, although it 
was primary. 

Natural or experimental philosophy is mostly re- 
stricted to media or secondary causes. Electricity, 
though one among the most subtle and powerful 
principles or agents in nature, cannot pass freely 
and immediately through the air and several other 
bodies, called non-conductors. The presence or 
absence of media, and the variety of their modifica- 
tions upon natural agents, give rise to the great di- 
versity of natural phenomena. If every natural 
cause operated immediately, the present appear- 
ances would be very different. The media of light 
and sound, it is well known, produce colors and 



THE ONE MEDIATOR- 21 

music. Strength in man is very limited ; and yet 
by the aid of media, how vast and various are its 
effects, and, in some instances, how apparently su- 
perhuman. 

To the immediate power of God no limits may be 
conceived. It is Almighty power and controlled 
only by his own wisdom, goodness and truth. He 
does what he wills to do, and how he wills to do it. 
It is the will of God, that there should be one, and 
but one Mediator between him and men. All in- 
tercourse between God and men must be through 
one Mediator. If he wills to speak to men, or to 
hear them, it is through one mediator ; and so, like- 
wise, if he wills to give or accept anything. 
There is but one Mediator for all religious purposes. 
The medium is human nature — God manifested in 
the flesh — who gave himself a ramson for all, to be 
testified in due time. 

The Mediator must be known. " This is eter- 
nal life, to know Thee, the only true God, and Je- 
sus Christ whom thou hast sent." " I am the way, 
the truth, and the life." One true God is revealed, 
and one sent Mediator is revealed. To know the 
Mediator, whom God hath sent, the prophecies con- 
cerning him must be identified in him. One Me- 
diator is sent at one time. That time is predicted. 
It is a proper time and a due time. Many media- 
tors might be sent at as many different times. At 
sundry times past, God spake by the prophets, but 
finally by his Son. The incarnation of the Son of 



22 DISCOURSE FIRST. 

God was not due sooner ; if it had been delayed Ion- 
ger, it might have proved to be too late. It was due 
in the time of the second temple, but this temple 
was totally destroyed not many years after this 
time. 

A mediatorial system requires at least one me- 
diator, and God has judged, that one is enough. 
Having given himself a ransom for all, he is able 
to save to the uttermost all who come unto God 
through him. Now, it has been a long and 
much controverted question, whether there can 
be any pardon granted by God to the offenders 
against his moral laws, consistently with their 
truth and justice, without satisfaction being made 
to meet their demands or penalties. But does it 
not admit of a query, whether the parties to the 
controversy have steadily kept in view the rela- 
tion between this question and the principle of 
mediation? That the relation has often been no- 
ticed and discussed is certain, but we do not re- 
member, to have met with an author, who has 
professedly followed the analogy of the satisfac- 
tion, which is manifestly required, in regard to 
offences against the laws of nature. When the 
laws of nature are violated, they seem, in no case, 
to pardon or to remit the penalty due to offenders, 
without satisfaction ; and the offenders seem not to 
be able to make the satisfaction immediately or di- 
rectly. But, between transgressions against nat- 
ural and moral laws, the analogy holds generally. 



THE ONE MEDIATOR. 23 

In each of these classes of laws, transgressions 
may be committed immediately. Moral errors and 
wrongs or evils, seldom, if ever, require mediators 
to their commission. Human inclination and 
power to commit sin, answer\ as nearly to the 
idea of immediate as any thing we can well con- 
ceive. Ability to do harm and to undo it, when 
done, is so strikingly disproportionate, as to have 
forced public attention to notice it, in all ages and 
countries. It is, only, when men have some fa- 
vorite opinion to support or defend, that they at- 
tempt to argue, that, it is just as easy to do good as 
to do evil ; or to do right as wrong, or to undo evil 
as to do it. 

All matter is said to be governed by the laws of 
gravity, or to have a tendency to a common centre. 
Falling bodies obey this law. It is the cause of 
friction and of the stability of bodies. But this 
law cannot be violated with impunity ; it must be 
satisfied. When violated, it cannot be immediate- 
ly remedied. Let a man disengage himself from 
any point of elevation, and he will immediately 
fall to the nearest point of resistance; but he shall 
attempt, in vain, to ascend in the same immediate 
manner. The law of gravity will oppose his reas- 
cension ; he must have some medium, by which 
to rise again. A flight of steps or a ladder might 
satisfy the law, but it will not be satisfied, without 
some medium. Do we see bodies rising from the 
earth, or suspended or floating in the air? Why 



24 DISCOURSE FIRST. 

do not these bodies fall ? The reason is, the law of 
gravity is satisfied. If a stone and a piece of wood 
were put into a vessel, filled with water, the stone 
will remain at the bottom, and the wood may float 
on the surface of the water ; but remove the water 
and the wood also will repose on the bottom of the 
vessel. They both obey the law of gravity; the 
balloon and the clouds do the same. Matter is 
governed not by partial, but by general laws. The 
laws operate without chance or accident. In regard 
to sickness or diseases of the body, it is well known, 
that, it is enough to relieve the body, or to suspend 
the action of the disease, to effect a cure ; that this 
effect cannot be produced immediately, but through 
the medium of medicine and medical art. The 
immediate cause of wounds and fractured bones 
makes no part of the surgeon's skill, which is all 
mediate. In regard to property, how easily and 
directly may it be spent or wasted, though hardly 
gained and still more hard to regain. The imme- 
diate and the mediate in these examples are in 
striking contrast ; and it is evident that their rela- 
tions are not interchangeable. Wisdom and good- 
ness always require means of attainment. What is 
education from first to last, but a mediate process? 
How little is known, that is not learned! What 
great and useful work of art was ever produced im- 
mediately ? Houses, ships, and machines of all de- 
scriptions, the culture of the fields, — look where we 
may, — all are mediate which improve or advance. 



THE ONE MEDIATOR. 25 

Laws must be fulfilled by direct obedience, or be 
satisfied by indirect means ; or their penalty will be in- 
curred and suffered. Is it to be presumed that moral 
or religious laws are designed by the Universal Law- 
giver, to be an exception to the general system? 
The Christian Religion, not being founded or pre- 
dicated upon ihe innocence, or purity, or goodness 
of human nature, but upon its fallen or sinful con- 
dition, follows the analogy of mediatorial theory. 
We have seen that the lav/ of gravity, by which, 
every particle of matter tends to a common centre, 
is the cause of the stability of bodies. Let but this 
law be suspended, or repealed, and we cannot help 
inferring, that all matter would become chaotic. 
Hence the necessity of mediatorial system, to leave 
general laws undisturbed, and to prevent remedies 
from becoming worse than the diseases. If all the 
material, necessary to compose a building, could be 
relieved from the effects of gravity, they would be 
like so many feathers, and this would be a great 
saving of labor in building, but the building would 
have no more gravity than feathers. A stone of the 
largest size might be taken with the thumb and fin- 
gers to any given height, but the first puff of wind 
might blow it away. Now, on the supposition, that 
the moral law might have no more control over 
moral actions, than gravity would have over matter, 
if that law were suspended ; would it not as effec- 
tually unsettle the stability of morals, as in the other 
case it would that of matter? To restore a man to 



26 DISCOURSE FIRST. 

a moral condition or standing, whose moral charac- 
ter has been deranged or forfeited, the moral law 
must be interrupted or changed, or medium must 
be resorted to. Law must remain and operate in 
all its force against the medium which satisfies it ; 
otherwise, nothing that is gained, can be secured. 
The one Mediator magnifies the law and makes it 
honorable. Having satisfied it, he justifies its trans- 
gressor, who believes on him, without making it 
void through faith, for the transgressor thus becomes 
responsible to him. A steamboat, ascending the 
falls of the Ohio, furnishes, perhaps, as good an il- 
lustration of the nature of the satisfaction of natural 
laws as can be found among the medium effects of 
the arts. The principle of gravity, which acts upon 
every particle of water in the rushing river, operates 
upon every part of the boat, her machine, and all 
her fixtures, and even upon the fire and the steam 
itself; but, by the medium of the steam, she moves 
steadily up the foaming and roaring rapids. But 
any general cause, sufficiently powerful to suspend 
the current, would prove destructive to the boat. 
There is, then, medium (namely steam,) by which 
a steamboat can ascend the falls. The mediate 
force overcomes the immediate resistance. Not a 
particle of matter is freed from gravity ; the law is 
perfectly satisfied in all its demands. The mighty 
river still flows on, chafing the rocks and whitening 
them with its foam. The moral law has denounced 
its awful and immediate penalty of death, upon the 



* THE ONE MEDIATOR. 27 

soul that sinneth. Behold! the Mediator. He is 
testified in due time ; he appears in fashion as a 
man, in the form of a servant. What does he do? 
Does he suspend the law and thus render its penalty 
null and void? Not so. He gives himself a ran- 
som for all. Is not the law satisfied with the ran- 
som? He becomes obedient unto death, even the 
death of the cross. How does the sinner obtain 
pardon through the medium of the death of Christ? 
Not by any immediate process. This one ransom 
of this one mediator leaves the law in all its integri- 
ty, and secures or merits the sinner's pardon. The 
tide of justice (so to speak,) is not suspended, is not 
turned up stream ; it keeps on its course, it presses 
with all its force against the Mediator, and yet he 
bears the sinner above it. What security could a 
sinner have in an immediate pardon of a violated 
law? Would not every principle, in the whole 
system, become unsettled, by this making void the 
law? Through one Mediator and his mediation, 
God may be just, and the justifier of him, that be- 
lieveth in the Mediator. That is, justice is not 
violated ; and is not this idea implied in the word, 
satisfied ? It has been said, that it is unj ust, to ac- 
cept the sufferings of the innocent in place of the 
guilty ; but those, who say this, also unsay the doc- 
trine of mediation, a doctrine, which, we cannot 
look upon nature without perceiving, nor act, with- 
out realizing. The very lightning of heaven passes 
not without a medium. Man cannot raise himself 



28 DISCOURSE FIRST. * 

to his own height from the ground without a me- 
dium. Ships cannot sail without a medium, and 
birds cannot fly without a medium. Surrounded 
as man is, with demonstrations of this principle, and 
having scarcely one example, in all the laws of na- 
ture, of an immediate process ; why sriould he 
hesitate to believe, that, there is one mediator be- 
tween God and man ? In fact, there is a tendency 
in many minds to believe that there are more than 
one Mediator. And the text seems to aim to cor- 
rect this proneness of mind, which, there seems to 
be nothing apparent in nature to correct, by adding, 
" who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in 
due time." When the penalty of a law is incurred, 
by a violation of it, one of two things must happen, 
to save the violator from suffering the penalt)^ ; the 
law must be set aside, or some medium must be 
provided, through which he can be pardoned, with- 
out invalidating the law. Immediate justice and 
immediate pardon cannot go together. They do 
not go together in human and civil laws. Imme- 
diate pardons, when frequent, render the laws, if 
not void, at least mediate. The maxim dictated by 
experience is, better to have no laAvs, than to have 
unexecuted laws. But, in theology, the truth of 
God is involved in the threatened penalty of the 
law; if it fails, his word fails. If mercy, as 
some speak, may disarm justice, it may not invali- 
date truth. Only a mediator can meet a truth of 
threatening a penalty, and onfy by giving himself a 



THE ONE MEDIATOR. 29 

ransom for all to whom the penalty is due. If a 
man owes a sum of money, the law cannot object^ 
if another gives it. And, if one should pay for a 
thousand, the law, that is, justice, could not objects 
Sin is a transgression of the law. The evil> 
the mischief is done ; but the law, which is trans^ 
gressed, cannot remedy it. The law itself, be- 
ing presupposed to be right, it cannot immediately 
repair the injury done, and take the offender in^ 
to favor and protection. The law and the sinner 
cannot be reconciled without some acknowledgment 
on the part of the law, or of the sinner. But, if the 
former confesses the wrong, it is law r no longer. 
The law, under the first covenant, is called the law 
of innocence, as the beings, who were to be gov- 
erned by it, were innocent. This law was holy^ 
just and good. It had no Mediator; every thing 
pertaining to it was immediate. While it was 
obeyed, there was no evil to be remedied. But 
transgressed, and its penalty incurred, it was not 
thrown away or set aside, and another substituted in 
its place to operate in the same immediate manner 5 
but without penalties. The covenant, made with 
guilty man, the covenant of grace, had one Media- 
tor. It was mediate, otherwise the penalty of the 
law of innocence must have gone into immediate 
effect. But sin entering into the world by one 
man, all men are placed by the Supreme Lawgiver 
under a mediatorial system, having one Mediator as 
its head. Between God and innocent man, there 
3* 



30 



DISCOURSE FIRST, 



was no mediator. The Lord spake unto Adam 
and Adam spake unto the Lord immediately. The 
effect of the first sin was immediate. " I heard thy 
voice and I was afraid." It is a property of fire to 
burn living flesh. The effect is so uniform, that it 
is considered as a law. And so it is with substan- 
ces called poisons ; they operate with all the unifor- 
mity of laws. To transgress these laws, is to be 
burned or poisoned. The effect is immediate, 
Not so the cure ; if indeed, there can be a cure. Not 
to dwell longer upon the principle of mediation, so 
obvious to every reflecting mind, proceed we, now, 
to consider, why there needs be but one Mediator 
between God and men. 

The man Christ Jesus unites in himself all the 
attributes necessary to the office. He is, — as some 
speak, — God with God and man with man, — God 
manifest in the flesh, the only begotten of the Fa- 
ther full of grace and truth, not a servant, as Moses 
was, but a Son, the heir of all things. In dignity 
he is supreme, — to which of the angels, said he, at 
any time, " Thou art my Son, this day have I be- 
gotten thee." But unto the Son, he saith, "Thy 
throne, O God! is forever; a sceptre of righteous- 
ness is the sceptre of thy kingdom." His exis- 
tence is coextensive with the duration of the office. 
He is the first and the last, the beginning * and the 
ending, the author and finisher of faith. There 
can be neither predecessor nor successor in a priest- 
hood of the order of Melchizedec. His power is 
all-sufficient. He has all power in heaven and 



THE ONE MEDUTOB. 31 

In earth. He is head over all things to the church* 
And his name or authority is above every name. 

That every knee should bo'\v to him, 

And every tongue confess. 

He is all- wise; he knows what is in man; 
he knows the hearts of all men ; he searcheth 
the reins. His merit is perfect. He gave him- 
self a ransom for all; not that he should suffer 
often, or that he had suffered often, from the 
foundation of the world ; but now, once at the end 
of the world, hath appeared to put away sin by the 
sacrifice of himself. One perfect mediator is enough. 
Two are only better than one, in any work, when 
one is insufficient to do it. Men make up in 
numbers for their individual defects. If the Medi- 
ator were subject to human imperfections, one 
would not be enough. And in fact, it is found, that 
those who hold to human or angelical mediators, 
are apt to have the number unlimited, if they do 
not fill heaven and earth with them. Gods many, 
and mediators many, are sure indications of indi- 
vidual imperfection. So, in the number of ancient 
ransoms or sacrifices. They were offered by every 
sinner and for every sin. But he, who gave him- 
self for all sinners and for all sins, needed no part- 
ner to mediate with him. The complete union of 
mediatorial attributes in the one Mediator is, in 
scripture, referred to divinity, — "They shall call 
his name Emanuel, that is, God with us." "He 
shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty 



22 DISCOURSE FIRST. 

God." " In him dwelt all the fullness of the God* 
head bodily." " Who thought it not robbery to bo 
equal with God." What mere man could alone 
mediate between God and menf 

Mediation is a great work. It is the saving of 
men, by bringing" them to the knowledge of the 
truth. How lost, how ruined is man ! How be- 
wildered and led astray in ignorance and error ? 
Every sinful propensity and sinful action tends 
to inveterate sinful habit. The night of ignorance 
and error requires a light, above the brightness of 
the sun, to enlighten it. Men have hated the one 
Mediator and hate him still. As soon as it was an- 
nounced that he was bom, measures were taken to 
destroy him ; the designs to take away his life 
finally succeeded. Being betrayed into the hands of 
his enemies and sentenced to death, without any 
evidence of guilt, to quiet the clamor of the multi- 
tude, whose cries for his crucifixion increased, as 
the legal forms failed them, he laid down his life on 
a Roman cross. The one, the only true Mediator 
dies as a malefactor. His own people, to whom he 
came, received him not ; they denied the Holy 
One and the Just One, and preferred as a customa- 
ry reprieve, a murderer. Men know not the Fa- 
ther nor the Son. Ignorance hates instruction and 
instructors. It is naturally cruel ; Avherever, it can 
be traced nearest to its extreme point, it is found to 
be least humane. The most isrnorant savages 
are most cruel, and in fact man-eaters. The un- 
pardonable offence of Jesus in the judgment of 



THE ONE MEDIATOR. S3 

die Sanhedrim was, that he made himself to be the 
Son of God. For this, they judged that he ought 
to die, and multitudes of others in different ages 
and countries are of the same judgment; and 
though they cannot persecute and kill him, are no 
less hostile to his followers. "This," said he, 
" they will do, because they know neither Me, nor 
my Father." To bring such ignorant creatures to 
the knowledge of the truth is one part of the great 
work of mediation. Ignorance cannot be immedi- 
ately enlightened. Instruction is a slow process, 
because it is a mediate one. It takes from time, 
what it lacks in direct force. 

The Mediator must reign, until he shall have 
put all things under his feet. His power, like his 
light or instruction, is mediate, and of course pro- 
gressive. The opposers of divine revelation, and 
particularly, those good men, who oppose the spirit 
to the letter, seem to lose sight of the mediatorial 
analogy. What is historical knowledge? Not 
surely immediate knowledge. How many genera- 
tions of men may have passed away, since the facts 
existed ! Would it not sound strange to hear, that, 
though the men who saw and recorded events and 
facts, two thousand years ago, were wise and good 
men, yet, there are now and always have been, wise 
and good men, who could write as good a history of 
them? Are not such declarations shocking to com- 
mon sense ? When the witnesses of any facts are 
dead, the only safe and correct medium of infor- 



34 DISCOURSE FIRST, 

mation respecting them, is the recorded testimony or 
written history, not the opinion of writers who lived 
in after ages. The Bible is a medium of religious 
knowledge; slow, indeed, it may be in transmit- 
ting it, but sure. It has been urged against the 
doctrine of depravity, that it is an argument in fa- 
vor of the divinity of the Mediator, being, as it 
were, a parent error. But, supposing the doctrine 
of human depravity should be yielded, still the dif- 
ficulties of the mediatorial work are real, and the 
necesssity for it as great as ever. In what age or 
country, when the gospel was first made known, did 
it meet with no resistance, no opposition ? Is not 
the history of religion a history of its deaths and its 
resurrections, of its sufferings and its triumphs ? "I 
am crucified with Christ, nevertheless, I live, yet 
not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life that I 
now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God, 
who loved me and gave himself for me." " It is a 
faithful saying, that if we suffer with him, we shall 
also reign with him." 

It is earnestly contended by many, that miracles 
and immediate inspiration have been, and are to he T 
perpetuated in the Church through all ages. May 
not the question be settled by a reference to the 
mediatorial principle? Would not a system, that 
cannot be carried on without perpetual miracles- 
and inspiration, seem to be better entitled to the ti- 
tle of immediate than mediate? And can °rood 
reasons be assigned, why there should be a mediator 



TEE ONE MEDIATOR. 35 

over perpetual miracles and inspirations ? The first 
man was a miraculous or immediate creation ; so 
also might have been the first language. But, the 
race of men is not continued by miracles, nor lan- 
guage by inspiration. The immediate inspiration 
of the Almighty does not continually give know- 
ledge to the spirit which is in man, as it did to the 
first man ; nor to all Christians and teachers, as it 
did, at first, to the Apostles. By what miracle or 
inspiration have any people heard the gospel with- 
out a preacher? The name of Christianity, where- 
ever found, can be traced back to Christ ; it is not 
adventitious. In contemplating the work of the 
One Mediator, the mind naturally pursues one of 
two courses. If it lessens the work, it also lessens 
the worker. If it augments the work, it also aug- 
ments the worker. A great work requires a great 
workman, and a little work may be done by a little 
workman. The mind takes one or the other of 
these courses, for it cannot change the number of 
workmen to meet the demand. Now, the greatness 
of this work seems to be implied, in the idea, of One 
for All. The number of men, the number of sin- 
ners, the number of sins, — can we, by any rule of 
proportion, infer that a little agent, by himself alone, 
or one man, no greater nor better than one of the 
individuals, would be adequate to the work ? Can 
one man be a mediator for all men, and give him- 
self a ransom for them all ? To answer this ques- 
tion in the affirmative, the character and condition 



$& tUBCOVRBE FIRST. 

of the whole race must be lightly estimated. Very 
Mttle instruction would be needed to bring them to 
the knowledge of the trath, if one man could give 
it all. And their offences must be mere peccadilloes, 
little sins indeed, if one sinful man could give a 
ransom for them all. We need only know the 
common effect of self-praise or self-condemnation 
upon the mind, or of pride or humility, to know the 
different conclusions, men will be apt to arrive at un- 
der the influence of these different feelings. A lit- 
tle mediator and a little mediation, will do for the 
proud and self-sufficient. But the humbled and 
self-condemned will feel the necessity of a great me- 
diator and a great ransom. Bating for the acci- 
dents of education, it seems to be a general rule, 
that the ideas and feelings of little sins and a little 
saviour reciprocate, and that the ideas and feelings 
of great sins and a great saviour have the same re- 
lative action. And whoever has much experience 
how the consciousness of the exceeding sinfulness 
of sin may be augmented, by an insight into the 
imperfections of human nature, will not be disposed 
to criticise, very strictly, the strongest words, when 
applied to this subject, not perhaps even infinite it- 
self, for when men have no data to calculate a pre- 
cise result, they set it down as infinite. Let this 
rule obtain in theology. If a finite calculation 
could be made, what security could any one have, 
that, on a death-bed, if not before, his feelings might, 
and consequently his fears might not exceed it? It 



"THE ONE MEDIATOR. 37 

is plain, that the Scripture sets no bounds or limits 
to a Saviour's merits. 

With the subjects of mediation and redemption, 
the wrath of God (so called) is involved. God gov- 
erns those, whom he has constituted moral agents, 
by written laws or by conscience, but conscience it- 
self conforms to written laws. The primary idea of 
wrath or anger in God seems to be derived from con- 
science, in a manner, not dissimilar to the supposed 
derivation of the idea of causation from our own 
volition. A consciousness of having done wrong, 
that is, of having offended some rule or law admit- 
ted to be right (and every man admits some rule of 
right) must be attended with a feeling of self-displea- 
sure. No person can feel pleased with himself, 
when he violates a rule. Hence, self-justification 
involves censure of the Law. This capacity, to feel 
the difference between right and wrong, is natural ; 
art can only modify it. Like the eye, or any natu- 
ral faculty, though it may be destroyed, it is never- 
theless inborn ; its excesses or morbid states are not 
to be compared to excrescences, but to disordered 
sensibilities. A consciousness of a violation of an 
admitted rule, may prompt the mind to inquire, how 
things are or may be right or wrong ; the mind may 
thus pass from facts to causes. When effects exhibit 
great appearances of uniformity, the idea of chances 
or accidents will not account for them. Let the mind 
come to the conclusion, or admit the conclusion 
that the law is of God, and the idea of displeasure 
4 



38 DISCOURSE FIRST, 

against sin will be transferred to him. Must not a 
person, who is displeased with himself, for having 
transgressed the law of God, infer that God must be 
displeased with him ? If he can be angry with him- 
self for sin, may not God be angry with him ? — - 
u Brethren if our hearts condemn us, God is greater 
than our hearts and knoweth all things." 

Should the assumption be still insisted upon, that 
the notions of law and of sin had their origin in 
priest-craft, still the universal aptness of the human 
mind, to receive these impressions or ideas, remains 
to be accounted for. Let persons, some of whom 
were born blind, be shut up in the dark together, 
and be all brought into the light, and what will the 
effect of the light prove ? Not surely the craft of 
Kim, who brought the persons into it, out of the 
dark, but the power of vision in some, and the 
want of it in others. A taper, or any artificial light, 
will test the existence of the natural power of vision, 
as effectually as the sun itself. And, if men, who 
had never seen the sun, could be made to believe, 
that any other light was the sun, it would not dis- 
prove the existence of the sun, nor of eyes. Men, 
and conscience, and certain ideas of moral laws, 
exist throughout the world in societies, but a society 
or tribe of men has never yet been found without 
consciences, or some kind or degree of feeling of the 
difference between right and wrong. By what rule 
of reason, or by what modification of belief, can a 
man, who has suffered a guilty conscience, come to 



THE ONE MEDIATOR. 39 

deny the displeasure of God against sin, and conse- 
quently, against a sinner? And Adam said, — " I 
was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.'* 
And the Lord said, — " Who told thee that thou wast 
naked?" Conscience is here revealed. "I was 
afraid." Their eyes ^vere opened; they had eyes. 
Men's consciences may be brought to act. Con- 
sciences no longer lie concealed, when they begin 
to feel guilt. The Mediator does not destroy or sus- 
pend conscience, when he mediates between God 
and men. But, would he not do so, in effect, by 
destroying or suspending moral law? What is con- 
science without law ? 

Who stands between the Father's wrath and me ? 
Who can so stand, save the One Mediator? But, 
how was the Father's wrath indicated, save by eon- 
science? The sinner is displeased with himself. 
" God, be merciful to me, a sinner!" Now, God is 
love ; he is loving to every man ; he so loved the 
world, as to give his only begotten Son, as a Me- 
diator and a ransom. " God, be merciful to me, a 
sinner !" for Christ's sake. The mercy, the pardon 
of sin prayed for, is mediate. God did not so love the 
world, as to save it from punishment and give ever- 
lasting life to it, without a mediator. Could he 
have done so, without abrogating his own laws, ef- 
facing conscience, and setting aside the necessity of 
repentanee and faith? He, who believes in the 
Lord Jesus Christ, so as not to perish, but to have 
everlasting life, cannot believe, at the same time, 



40 DISCOURSE FIRST. 

that his soul will be saved without a Mediator, or 
that any mediator can save his soul, who did not 
give himself a ransom for it. 

The conceptions and views of certain writers, on 
these points, seem not to be uniformly steady. Let 
us not assume effects without causes, nor suppose 
causes without objects, but keep the questions dis- 
tinct ; — with or without a mediator and a ransom ? 
" Without me," said the Mediator, " ye can do 
nothing." How, indeed, can we, if a mediator be 
necessa^, and if there be but one? May not many 
of the disagreements between Christians be traced 
to this cause? If the idea of a Mediator or of me- 
diation be omitted, or the nature, extent, or difficul- 
ty of the work be misapprehended, a wade door is 
opened for discussion. Many, among the Jewish 
believers, who recognized the Messiah in Jes^s, 
could not be prevailed upon to give up the* legal 
ransoms. The Mediator might mediate between 
God and men, but they must repair to the altar with 
the price of sacrificial blood. Each of these be- 
lievers gave his own ransom. If their views had 
prevailed, thousands of victims would still be bleed- 
ing at the altar. And there are, even, in these 
days, Gentile converts, who do not hesitate to say, 
that the blood of Christ, as. a ransom, has no more 
merit than the blood of a bullock. They do not 
believe that Christ died for us, or put away sin by 
the sacrifice of himself. It makes no part of their 
creed, that Jesus was delivered for our offences, and 



THE ONE MEDIATOR. 41 

rose again for our justification. But, whether, they 
come under the description of those, who deny the 
Lord that bought them, or not, we may leave to the 
righteous Judge of all to determine. 

We conclude, by urging upon the attention, the 
conformity between the quotation from St. Peter 
and the text. " Let no one deny ; let no one be 
ashamed, or afraid to confess the Lord, that bought 
him, before men. Our bodies and souls are not 
our own. They are bought with a price. — H© 
hath ransomed our race?" 

Oh ! how shall we praise, 

Or worthily sing, 
His unspeakable grace I 

Cincinnati, January, 1838. 



DISCOURSE SECOND. 

THE POOR *N SPIRIT. 



And he opened his mouth, and taught then?, sayiaag : Blessed a»8 
the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven : Blessed are 
they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. 

Matthew v. 2, 3, 4, 

Enunciations, like these, partake of the nature of 
predictions, as all promises do. The consequences 
will follow from the premises. Jesus must have 
foreknown, that the effects would follow from the 
causes, and under these conditions. Did he not 
mean to be understood, as though he had said ; — I 
am about to establish a new kingdom, under the 
name of the kingdom of heaven? But, what mor- 
tal man knew or foreknew the conditions of admis- 
sion into it or its nature ? Must all, to enter into 
this kingdom, be poor in spirit, must they all be 
mourners? Upon these conditions alone, can they 
all be blessed? To have said so, without know- 
ing the fact, — would it not have been presump- 
tuous ? Or, if the speaker had determined it should 
be so, without knowing his ability to bless, — would 
it have been less hazardous ? 

If a person should exhibit a new seed or plant, 
the like of which, no body had seen, and should 
proceed to tell how it should be cultivated, how it 
would grow, the time it would take to come to ma- 
turity, the size shape and quality of the fruit, and 



THE POOR IN SPiKlT. 4.3 

all other particulars, would lie be credited without 
an admission of his knowledge or of a spirit of 
prophecy? To say, that the poor in spirit shall be 
blessed, because theirs is the kingdom of heaven, 
to say, that the mourners shall be blessed, because 
they shall be comforted, would be unwarrantable, 
without knowledge, or faith in those who do know 
these things. A knowledge of a given number of 
results of this kind, without a promise or a predic- 
tion, would only amount to probability that they 
would continue to come to pass. We are struck 
with the vast variety in the seeds or germs of vege- 
tables and animals, and the differences between the 
embryos and the forms in their full developments. 
Who could anticipate all their changes? Or, who 
could predict that a pine seed would produce a pine 
tree, or by seeing trees, could conceive the size and 
shape of their seeds? These disproportions baffle 
ail conjecture. The elm and the sycamore are 
striking examples of the want of agreement between 
the blossoms and the seeds, and the seeds and the 
trees. Nor, is the apparent difference between pov- 
erty of spirit and mourning, and the kingdom of 
heaven and its comforts less striking. In the latter 
case, it even amounts to a contrast. In all the me- 
tabolia tribes of insects, the changes, in their several 
transitions and transformations, defy human pre- 
science. The beautiful butterfly was a shapeless 
mass, wrapped in its webb covering, then a green 
oval figure, marked with golden spots-, but still 



44 BiSCOliRS^ SECOND. 

wingless. Thus, moral and spiritual existence (if 
one may so speak) unfolds itself or is transformed, 
concealing its future characters from all but the 
divine mind, — the predictions of them being con- 
firmed by experience and observation. In this re- 
spect, the natural man understandeth not these 
things of God, cannot comprehend how the poor in 
spirit can have the kingdom of heaven, nor how the 
mourners can be comforted. He cannot see the 
kingdom of heaven and cannot naturally discern 
those heavenly things. The divine wisdom of 
Jesus, then, is manifest in the first part of this dis- 
course on the mount. This was teaching as man 
could not teach. It was teaching prophetically. 
To bless the poor in spirit, was to bless those whom 
mortals curse ; to bless the mourners, was to reverse 
the judgment of the world. This testimony of 
Jesus was the spirit of prophecy. The king of this 
kingdom reigns over the poor in spirit. They sub- 
mit to him, and he protects and blesses them. 
Happy is that people whose God is the Lord, yea, 
happy is that people whose God is the Lord ! In 
the midst of the conscious feelings of poverty, they 
are rich in promises and privileges. This kind of 
evidence, of the truth of the Gospel, is apt to be 
overlooked, even by its friends. When the text 
was pronounced, the Church was not formed. No 
man knew the nature or the plan of its religion. 
Those people, who had a general expectation, that 
the Messiah would save his people from their sins, 



THE POOR IN SPIRIT, 4i? 

did not fully comprehend the mode of operation. 

This teacher, then, taught the first principles of his 
own religion, from the very outset of his ministry, 
and also pointed out its consequences. Pie dis- 
closed the fact, that, what the ignorance and error 
of the human mind had led man to shun, as the 
sources of misery, if not as misery itself, were die 
first steps to the highest happiness. The progress 
of religious experience, is an evidence of the truth 
of revelation. The things that are foretold, coming 
thus to pass, the promises are thus verified. These 
changes and transitions require time, and give occa- 
sion and opportunity for the exercise of faith and 
patience. The first germs and buds do not show 
the future product, even in a miniature form. The 
natural analogy and illustration are to be taken, 
raiiier from the metabolia, than from the ametabo- 
ha, or from those cases, in which one apparent form 
is changed for another different, if not opposite. 
So, many aerial insects are natives of water and 
others of the earth. Several of the illustrations of 
the resurrection will also apply to Christian expe- 
rience. So, in regard to the corn; first, the blade, 
then the ear, and after that, the full corn in the ear, 
and yet all dissimilar in appearances. The first 
end most constant propensity of the mind is, to 
judge according to appearances, and from first and 
strongest impressions. The history of the errors 
and vices of different ages and countries, discloses 
to the eye of the observer, the effects of these pro- 



46 DISCOURSE SECOND. 

pensities. The sense of injuries or of wrongs is, 
generally among the first of our feelings, that is 
most easily developed ; and from its natural acute- 
ness, revenge, which, all have agreed to call sweet, 
soon follows. Sweet revenge, that is, the pleasure 
of revenge requires no oracular aid and no ex- 
ample ; it springs forth spontaneously. It prevails 
in its highest degree, anions' the most savage tribes, 
and is the last of the passions to be subdued by ed- 
ucation and religion. To talk of a kingdom, and 
to base the happiness of its subjects upon their pov- 
erty in spirit, is to bring strange things to the ears of 
savages, and of men, in whom the savage disposition 
of revenge is not only not subdued by education, 
but rendered more subtle by it. The Jews, who 
were the auditors of this discourse, were looking for 
a Messiah, to revenge their nation upon its Roman 
conquerors and masters. Many of them, probably 
then came to the conclusion, that this teacher came 
not from God, as the dispositions, he taught, fostered 
none of their notions of patriotism or heroism. Not 
only, was the cross a stumbling block, but almost 
all the sayings of Jesus ; they were contrary to all 
experience among political men. The resurrection 
was more credible to their minds, than that the 
poor in spirit should be the blessed subjects of the 
Messiah's kingdom. " Without controversy, the 
mystery of godliness is great." Much of what it 
teaches now, can only be known hereafter. The 
learner lives and walks by faith, and not by sight. 



THE POOR IN SPIRIT. 47 

The confidence of the first disciples must have often 
been put to the severest tests, while they listened to 
the discourses of their master. There was great rea- 
son that they should be assured, that the spirit 
of truth should come and lead them into all 
truth. 

B ut, what are the meaning and import of these 
terms, — -poor in spirit and mourn ? When two or 
more terms or phrases, applicable to the same per- 
sons or things, occur in the scriptures, may we not, 
as a general rule, regard them as nearly synony- 
mous ? Now, as we seldom hear these terms re- 
peated, but find the word repentance, where they 
seem to be called for, may we not infer, that they 
were used interchangeably with repentance, — that 
to be poor in spirit and to mourn is to repent, and that 
to repent is to be poor in spirit and to mourn ? Ac- 
tions may appear very different to the mind, before 
they are committed, while they are being committed, 
and after they have been committed. In the two 
former cases, they may inspire courage and pleasure 
or joy, and in the latter, fear and grief, or produce 
poverty in spirit and mourning. There are cases in 
men's lives, which they cannot think upon, without 
self-abasement. The hero, the mighty warrior may 
discover, upon reflection, that he has been fighting 
against God, and, if he does, will not his courage fail 
him, will he not be apt to become poor in spirit, in 
fortitude, and in resolution ? May not conscience, in 
this way, make cowards of us all? But, who can 
make such a discovery and not mourn over it ? Do 



48 DISCOURSE SECOND. 

we provoke the Lord to jealousy — are we stronger 
than he? 'What folly, what madness, to continue 
lighting against God ! "It is a fearful thing to fall 
into the hands of the living God, for our God is a 
consuming fire." How strong in spirit, how coura- 
geous were those Jews, who, in their misjudged zeal 
for God, were going about to establish their own righ- 
teousness ! Prompted by this zeal, they crucified 
the Lord of Glcry! But, mark their poverty in 
spirit, their mourning, when they were touched to 
the heart, when Peter charged them with the fact 
Their courage, their zeal are gone ; they cry out, 
— "Men and brethren, what shall we do?' All 
men, who seek happiness in sin, in effect, fight 
against God. 

Those painters, who have painted tears flowing, 
while none of the corresponding muscles of the 
face, were made to take on the attitudes of weep- 
ing, have been justly ridiculed, Mighty and proud 
and daring spirits never mourn. In the process of 
true repentance, it must be evident, to an)/ one, fa- 
miliar with subjects of religious experience and the 
human system, that there is some physical change, 
in some way, connected with it. Repentance is, as 
the scripture expresses it, a heart-breaking opera- 
tion. The spirit gives way, is impoverished ; the 
strength isgone, the sources of it have failed. Be- 
hold ! a poor and needy sinner indeed ! This poor- 
ness in spirit, and mourning, could not long con- 
tinue, without relief or mitigation ; the heart would 
sink; rapidly into despair. Hence, these subjects 



THE POOR IN SPIRIT. 49 

are not held up alone, for a length of time, in the 
Gospel. They that mourn are promised comfort. 
The happiness of religion is pronounced upon those 
who seek it, by anticipation ; without hope, they 
Would be most wretched. These beatitudes, or 
modes of extracting real blessedness out of ap- 
parent misery, were mysterious to their first hear- 
ers, though it is now customary to applaud them as 
models of plainness and simplicity. They are in- 
deed, plain to him, that hath (this kind of) under- 
standing ; but to others, they are as an unknown 
tongue. Blessedness to the poor in spirit, and from 
being poor in spirit, — what an enigma ! How in* 
comprehensible to the great master spirits of our 
world ! How discordant to the views and habits of 
wine-bibbers, and alcohol bibbers, who cannot make 
themselves rich enough in spirit, by the greatest 
luxury in drinking ! The ingenuity of the human 
mind is exhausted, in endeavors to fortify the mind 
against fear and sorrow. Oh ! this dread of low- 
ness of spirits, this ennui, this black melancholy ! 
Heroes are not afraid of death ; they laugh at death ; 
but, the bare idea of becoming poor in spirit, strikes 
terror to their hearts. 

The religion of Jesus is true to nature. Health 
and life are destroyed by misery. In the feeling 
of enjoyment, in every kind and degree, there must 
be corresponding modes of animal action, opposite 
to those which take place in suffering. In all vi- 
cious enjoyment, there is naturally a fulness or flow 
5 



50 DI'SCOURSE SECOND. 

of spirits. The pleasant, the cheerful, and the gay 
in all degrees, and the unpleasant, the uncheerful, 
and the gloomy, do not result from the same men- 
tal, moral and physical conditions and emotions. 
Changes, in the proximate causes, are indicated by 
the changing feelings. But, happiness in error and 
sin is not a stock, on which, happiness in truth and 
virtue can be engrafted. The pleasures of sin must 
be destroyed, before the pleasures of holiness can be 
enjoyed. Not only are they opposite, in their ob- 
jects and their tendencies, but human nature itself 
cannot endure double and opposite excitements. 
Too much pleasure becomes pain and ends in dis- 
ease. The pleasures of vice and of virtue, if they 
could exist together in the highest degree, would 
overpower the most robust constitution. But their 
primary causes are so opposite, that a conflict of de- 
sire and volition, would almost immediately ensue. 
" Be not drunk with wine," which drunkenness is 
produced by an excess of stimulus, " but be filled 
with the spirit of grace." But, what resemblance 
is there between the desire for wine, and the desire 
for the spirit of grace ; or between the means of pro- 
curing the one and the other? Both excite agreea- 
ble feelings, and both kinds of feelings may termi- 
nate in ecstacy, but while the former brutalizes, the 
latter sanctifies. The experiments have been made, 
times without number, and under every variety of 
circumstances, and the results have proved uniform: 
sinful and religious enjoyments cannot long exsit 



THE POOR IN SPIRIT, 51 

together ; it is as vain to attempt to unite them, as 
it is to serve two masters. It is not, as has been 
argued, physically possible. The sinner, then, who 
is rich in spirit, must become poor in spirit, before he 
can be rich in grace ; must lose his appetite for sin, 
before he can have a desire for righteousness, and 
must die to the former before he can live to the lat- 
ter. 

Poverty in spirit and mourning, do not elevate 
the feelings but depress them, are not joyous for 
the present but grievous. Godly sorrow worketh re- 
pentance unto salvation, not to be repented of. Medi- 
cines may be nauseous, yet curative. It would be 
as disingenuous as vain, to attempt to prove, that it 
is a pleasure to be poor in spirit and to mourn ; for 
if it were so, how could it be pleasurable to be con- 
verted ? If the sinner be happy, if the mourner be 
happy, and if the Christian be happy, conversion or a 
change of heart, would not imply a change from 
misery to happiness. And such, indeed, is the 
view, some do take of conversion. It is the idea of 
passing from death unto life, which they dislike. 
The bitter pill of repentance is loathing to their 
souls. The happiness of the kingdom of heaven, 
while repentance lies between it and them, they get 
their own consent to forego. The cases of self- 
moved volition, to become religious, are rare ; the 
heart feels itself repelled in its first movements. 
Sinners are to be called to repentance; the subject 
is' to be preached to them ; the spirit of truth and 



52 DISCOURSE SECOND. 

grace must mightily convince them and move their 
hopes and fears. When, the natural and lawful 
enjoyments become as sorrowful meat, when tears 
water the pillow and mingle with food, and the heart 
grows sick and faint ; then religion begins to appear 
lovely, and is anticipated as sweeter than honey, and 
more to be desired than fine gold, and the promises 
of the gospel present the certainty of salvation. 
Faith comes by hearing the word of God. The 
words of the text are not expedients : they enter 
i^nto the plan of salvation ; they are principles in the 
system. The whole need not a physician, but they 
that are sick. He filleth the hungry with good 
things. Now, the change of feeling and desire are 
so great as to sustain a change of purpose, and the 
prospect of success is evident enough, to sustain 
hope. The love of sin and the habit of sin never 
generate their contraries. Practice in sin, like all 
other practices, may be carried to fatigue or exhaus- 
tion, and consequently to aversion ; but after rest, 
the same desires will return. The aversion for food, 
after eating, bears no affinity to a change of heart ; 
nor, does any physical debility, which follows ex- 
cess or accident. The fatal indigestion, consequent 
upon gluttony, could it be suspended, would reveal 
the continued excess of desire for the pleasures of 
the table. The hearts of old men are not proved to 
be changed by the imbecility consequent upon age. 
The old soldier, who shoulders his crutch and 
shows how fields were won, is not impoverished in 



THfiPOOit IN SPIRIT. 53 

courage, in proportion to his bodily decay. Though 
nature must be changed, as has been intimated, to 
a certain degree in its physical affections, yet, the 
causes, which change the vicious propensities, are 
mental and moral. Men, who have been intempe- 
rate, have become sober and regular in their habits, 
from rational and moral influences ; the appetite did 
not change itself. The distinction , sometim es made 
between these causes and religious causes, in order 
to show the inefncacy of the former, has, in some 
instances, been injudicious. In fact, religious in* 
fluence does not succeed unless it conforms to the 
rational and moral modes. 

Whatever tends to destroy any irregular, vicious, 
or excessive pleasures, does not, at first, produce 
pleasurable sensations. Vices, which yield plea- 
sure, will, when suspended, leave pain. Every 
body has heard of the celebrated M. N. , the minis- 
ter of finance in Fiance. This gentleman, a na- 
tive of Geneva, became an eminent banker in Paris, 
and, in the eventful movements, which were con- 
nected with the French Revolution, was called in- 
to the cabinet,— banished,— recalled,- — and again, 
compelled to retire, after having shared royal and 
popular favor. In his last retirement, he was vi- 
sited by Mr. Gibbon, the historian. Mr. G.'s de- 
scription of the fallen minister, taken from his own 
confessions, represents him as humbled and wretch- 
ed in the extreme. The historian adds, that if he 
wanted to cure the ambition of a young aspirant 
5* 



54 DISCOURSE SECOND. 

for fame, he would have presented him M. N. at 
this crisis. As the popular minister, he wanted on- 
ly the name of royalty. Behold ! the transition 
through which he had passed ! Behold ! the mise- 
ry, consequent upon the abstraction of the highest 
degree of this kind of pleasurable excitement, which 
a private citizen could have experienced ! One 
day, at the summit of wealth, power, grandeur and 
flattery ; and the next, a degraded, a banished and 
an obscure individual ! Now, is it possible to con- 
ceive, how so much pleasurable emotion could 
cease, without leaving the heart in a most painful 
state ? If religion, and reason, and volition, had 
all conspired to effect, what necessity had done, still 
the transition could not have been passed through, 
without painful sensations. Religion might have 
made M. N. happy, after his fall from power ; and 
it is said that it did afford him solace in his retire- 
ment : but it could not have gotten him down from 
such an elevation, without some experience in him- 
self of the state described in the text. Observation has 
compelled reflecting persons, to be distrustful of what 
are called sudden conversions, or as 4 they might 
more properly be called, short repentances. They 
do not, in general, allow of much time, to realize 
and identify states and conditions, so as to contra- 
distinguish them. The confessions of opium-eaters, 
who have disused that powerful narcotic, (not a 
common case) furnish another proof of the laAV of 
feeling, in passing from high excitements to a state, 



T HE POOR IN SPIRIT. 55 

in which they are abstracted. Over-dosed nature 
will sink, and sink to a contrast with its former ele- 
vation. Immediate transitions, from vicious to vir- 
tuous pleasures, have no foundation in nature, arrl 
they have none in Scripture. The happiness of 
religion among- sinners, must be preceded by the 
wormwood and the gall. The spirit must be 
brought low, and become poor, before it can be 
raised and enriched by grace. 

It is the general opinion, in this country, and is 
practically operated upon, that church and state 
ought to be kept . separate. Anti-christian politi- 
cians earnestly insist upon this separation, as they 
believe, of course, that there is no truth in the 
Church. Do Christians conceive that men can be 
good republicans, without being poor in spirit ; or 
that the poverty of spirit, which prepares them for 
the kingdom of heaven, unfits them for the du- 
ties of the republic ? The fact seems to be, that 
ambition may exist in republics, and in the hearts 
of their professing Christian members, in a manner, 
that neither creeds nor constitutions can detect or 
eradicate. But, the primitive Christians, when 
persecution was in action, could hold neither Jew- 
ish nor Roman offices. They were religiously and 
civilly proscribed. It seems plain that poverty in 
spirit has no affinity to ambition, any more than to 
pride, and that republican ambition may become an 
impediment of religion. Republicans, who seek 
the glory that comes from men through the ballot- 



06 DISCOURSE SECOND. 

box, are wont to glory over the aspirants for royal 
favor; but can the honor that comes from men, 
sought through either of these means, be easily kept 
within bounds which may not rival the honor that 
comes from God ? In a republic, with universal suf- 
frage, the majority of the voters being an ti- Christian, 
would not the Christian, who should canvass for 
office, find his poverty in spirit put to a severe test ? 
It is, indeed, a favorite maxim, that " the people 
are honest," — that they want nothing but light. 
The religiously disposed candidate, however, should 
know, how unfairly, truth is matched with false- 
hood, when party feeling runs high. Who, that 
understands human nature, and republican parties, 
and the religion of Jesus, would not be cautious, 
how, he pronounced the subjects of republican am- 
bition, — Blessed? 

Americans, it seems, whether intentionally or 
not, have decided, that Christianity and our Repub- 
licanism are not identical ; that, the Lord Jesus, 
when he pronounced the poor in spirit, blessed, did 
not mean to confer a divine right to the kingdom 
of heaven, upon Democratic Republicans. World- 
ly ambition, however it may be modified, cannot 
elevate the soul above itself. There are few points, 
perhaps, on which men of public spirit are more apt 
to run into error, than this ; — when the mind is un- 
der the strong influence of this feeling, it is difficult 
to discriminate self-love, love of country, and love 
of religion. In truth, in our zeal to keep church 



THE POOEIN SPIRIT. 57 

and state separate, we are daily giving our great pa- 
triots, passports to heaven, upon the merit of their 
patriotism alone. 

The avaricious, also must not be confounded 
with the poor in spirit. Avarice generates pleasures, 
at variance with religious happiness. The desire of 
riches, like all other desires, increases by gratification, 
and the pain of privation, as the intenseness of the 
pleasure of acquirement, The anticipation of hap- 
piness originates in want, and want may be real or 
imaginary. A starving man wants money to buy 
food ; but if he has money, and there is no food to 
be purchased with it, his hunger would continue 
without reference to money. To love money, for 
its own sake, is an imaginary want. But, if a man 
wants money, for the sake of the means it may pro- 
cure to sustain life, the money satisfies that im- 
mediate want, so soon as the means are procured. 
But money, when procured for its own sake, re- 
lieves not the the desire for more. And if it be con- 
fided in as a source of happiness, it becomes an ob- 
ject of idolatry ; and hence covetousness is so call- 
ed, and hence, too, the prohibition, — trust not in 
uncertain riches. The love of money may become 
the root of all evil, an all absorbing passion, exer- 
cising an entire control over the will, equal to re- 
ligion. But riches, though loved as a God, may 
make to themselves wings, and fly from their posses- 
sors. But how great and painful must be the va- 
cuum thus left in the heart, or as one speakes, the 
sinking of the heart ! 



58 DISCOURSE SECOND. 

A change of heart or conversion, is one of the 
strong points of objection to religion, among un- 
believers. And those believers, who refer it to the 
power of God, gain nothing of them, as they have 
no more faith in the power of God, than in a change 
of heart. On what ground, can these unbelievers 
be met in argument? Can it not be shown, what 
poor in spirit, is not? Let a man be deprived of 
all the well-known sources of spirit, and will he not 
be poor in spirit? Deprive him of all the sources 
of happiness, and will he not be poor in happi- 
ness? Deprive him of all the sources of his cour- 
age, and will he not be poor in courage? And, so 
of confidence, and of hope, and every thing 
else. Irreligious men may be rich in spirit. Every 
vice is a substitute for virtue. Every error, a sub- 
stitute for truth. It has long been a matter of de- 
sire, among Missionaries, to find an unsophisticated 
or uncorrupted people, to whom, they might preach 
the Gospel. Is not this, like wishing to find some 
darkest midnight, into which, to carry the light? 
If physicians ever had a corresponding desire, per- 
haps, those of them, who have had much expe- 
rience in epidemic diseases, are pretty well content, 
for the time to come, to practice among sophisti- 
cated patients. Must not the infidel be met upon 
the position, that moral causes may produce physi- 
cal changes? Let this be demonstrated. And is it 
not a demonstrable position ? Indeed, it is one of 
the favorite arguments of unbelievers, that physical 
causes do produce moral changes. Why not, then 3 






THE POOR IN SPIRIT. 59 

reverse the rule, and admit, that moral causes may 
produce physical changes? Mourning, which is 
usually coupled with weeping, — the tears being the 
indicative, — cannot be easily understood, without 
some reference to physical principles. The causes 
of mourning and weeping may differ, but whether 
the cause be moral or natural, the tears will not be 
found to vary materially, in their component parts. 
The same organs or functions are operated upon, 
and operate among the mourners in Zion, as upon 
mourners in other places. Truth may make sor- 
row come; and the greater the truth, the greater 
the sorrow. In its highest tones of joy, the heart 
may be suddenly struck with veritable tidings, of 
the most painful kind; and the heart may be 
changed, so as never to recover its tone of joy again. 
A popular and well-authenticated story, of this kind, 
is of modern date. It bears, that a certain French- 
man rendered important services, to one of the min- 
isters of the Bourbons, in the late restoration of that 
dynasty, at the hazard of his life, being encouraged 
by many and great promises. After the restoration, 
he waited on the Minister, but instead of receiving 
the promised rewards, the Minister affected not to 
know him ! It is said, that he was never after- 
wards seen to smile. The world is full of exam- 
ples of the powerful and fatal changes of nature, 
from moral causes. The heart has been thus liter- 
ally broken. One of the predicted offices of the 
Messiah was, to heal the broken hearted. There 



60 DISCOURSE SECOND. 

are cases of conscience, which, nothing but religion 
can remedy. And, it is remarkable, that the reme- 
dy is brought to act through faith. " We have 
peace with God, through our Lord Jesus, being 
justified by faith." We have peace and joy, 
through believing. 

Come on now, let us reason together. We have 
common data. As an unbeliever, you assumed, 
that natural causes might produce moral changes. 
We granted your position. Now, in our turn, we 
assume, moral causes may produce physical chan- 
ges. How can you deny it? We give you the 
choice of examples, and only ask the principle* 
But, if there be no preference, take the following: 
" Thou fool, this night, shall thy soul be required 
of thee ; and then, whose shall all these things be?" 
The case is a plain one. There can be no mistake 
or doubt about it. Weil, does the heart remain un- 
moved? Rather, does not Belshazzar's trembling 
seize it? What so potent, as promises and threat- 
enings, to move the hopes and fears? "Behold! 
I bring you good tidings of great joy !" " How 
beautiful, upon the mountains, are the feet of those, 
who bring good tidings of good things ; who say 
unto Zion, — behold! thy God reigneth. !" The 
Providence, and truth, and grace of God, have 
many ways of reaching the conscience, for sorrow 
or for joy. The heart may be made to know 
its own bitterness. The terrors of God may make 
it afraid. But, there is a voice of sovereign grace : — 



THE POOR IN SPIRIT. 61 

** Blessed are they that are poor in spirit, blessed 
are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted !" 

DOCTRINAL PROPOSITIONS. 

1. The heart cannot sustain the pleasurable emo- 
tions of two opposite excitements, at the same time, 
in equal degrees. 

2. The heart cannot pass from a vicious to a vir- 
tuous excitement, immediately, or without a sus- 
pension of the pleasurable emotions of vice. 

Cincinnati, January, 1838. 



DISCOURSE THIRD, 

FREE GRA C E . 



•i He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up fo? us ali 7 
tow shall he not, with him, also freely give us all things. 

Romans, vm. 32. 

The language of the text differs from that of the 
prophet, who says, — " Unto us a child is born, unto 
us a Son is given." The Apostle would not say, — 
"Unto us a Son has died," — but, — "delivered up 
(to death) for us all." God did not spare his own 
Son from death. Christ died for us. Does the 
Christian religion differ from all others? And if 
so, in what does the difference consist ? Is it not 
in this; in all other religions, the sinner gives the 
sacrifice for sin to God, but in the Christian reli- 
gion, God gave the sacrifice for sin, for the sinner, 
and accepted it? This difference was real. In the 
religion of all nations, there were sin offerings, or 
sacrifices for sin ; and they were all given by the 
sinners themselves. All nations had their priests, 
and priests are offerers of sacrifices. This is the 
nature and design of the priestly office, for every 
high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices. 
"Wherefore, it was of necessity, that this man 
(Christ Jesus) should have somewhat, also, to offer." 
A priest, then, who offers nothing, or has nothing, 






FREE GRACE. 63 

v 

to offer, is a contradiction in terms. Every religion 
had its altars, its victims or sin-offerings, and it* 
high priest, with the subordinate priesthood. And 
the people, as sinners, gave the sacrifices to the 
priest, to be offered by them, in behalf of the sin- 
ners to God. The Gods of the nations gave no sin- 
offerings to themselves for sinners. The people 
were not so taught by the teachers or the poets. 
But, was not the religion of the law of Moses, so 
called, that is, the religion of the Old Testament, 
an exception to the general rule? Did not its 
teachers teach the people, to believe, that God gives 
the sacrifice for the sinner? Be it so. But, though, 
the sacrifices under the law, are considered as types 
and shadows, and although enough is quoted, to 
prove, that, the sacrifice of God was the substance 
pointed to ; still, the sacrifices were to be furnished 
by the sinners to the priests, to be offered to God, 
in their behalf. And, this is the ground of the dif- 
ference between Judaism and Christianity, or the 
law of works and the law of faith. The apostolic 
preaching of Christ crucified, that is sacrificed, was 
to " the Jews, a stumbling block, and to the Greeks 
foolishness." Nothing could have been farther from 
the thoughts of those concerned in procuring and 
effecting the crucifixion of Christ, than the idea or 
belief, that they were the instruments of God, who 
was thus making a sacrifice to himself. The most 
subtle or inveterate enemy of Christianity, has never 
made such an insinuation. " The God of our 



64 [BI8C0URSE THIRD. 

Fathers," says St. Peter, " hath glorified his Soil 
Jesus, whom ye delivered up and denied him^hi 
the presence of Pilate, when he was determined 
to let him go ; and ye denied the holy One and 
the Just, and desired a murderer to be- granted* 
unto you, and killed the Prince of Life, whom 
God hath raised from the dead, whereof, we are 
witnesses." The opinions respecting the merits of 
the legal sacrifices, had become so general and so 
fixed, among the Jewish Priests and People, that 
nothing, short of the proof of the merits of the 
death of Christ, could have satisfied them. — Is it 
also true, that it is the doctrine of Christianity, 
that God gave the sacrifice to himself, for sinners ? 
If not, how could the text be true? "He that 
spared not his Own Son, but delivered him up for 
us all ; how shall he not, with him, freely give us 
all things?" This is Free Grace. The procuring 
cause of salvation (so called,) is not in the sinner. 
Here is the line of separation and the point of de- 
parture, between grace and works, or the merit of 
works. Who gives the sacrifice for sin ? If the 
answer be, God, then it is Grace, Free Grace. If 
it be the sinner, then it is works, the merit of works. 
It is true to the letter of Scripture, that God gave 
the sin-offering for sinners; and not that sinners 
gave a meritorious sin-offering to God. But is it 
true to reason; is it possible? How can God be 
the giver, and the receiver of his own gifts ? Gen- 
eral laws or principles, it has been assumed, must 



FREE GRACE, 65 

be fulfilled or satisfied, and consequently justice. 
If it were possible to conceive of one of the divine 
attributes, as more immutable than another, should 
we not conceive that attribute, to be justice ? This 
surely must be without variableness. 

The justice of God, and the laws of God, are 
commonly, if not always, illustrated, by the friends 
of the atonement, by references to human justice, 
or human laws. But are there not important points 
in which analogy fails ? The justice and the moral 
law of God, — must they not be conceived of, as in- 
separable from God himself, and not, as in human 
law-makers, separate and distincts acts? The hu- 
man law-maker is dead, but his laws live and are in 
force, in the law-book. But the laws of God are in 
his immortal mind ; if they are written in a book, 
this is only an edition or transcript of them. They 
are therefore unrepeaiable. " If we deny him, he 
abideth faithful; he cannot deny himself;" — is ap- 
plicable to -the law of God. If we violate it, he 
abideth faithful; he cannot violate it. Moral laws, 
in contradistinction to political or circumstantial laws, 
are not affected, by what is called, the changes of 
divine dispensations. They are not like the divers 
washings, of which the Apostle speaks, imposed 
until the time of reformation. Notwithstanding the 
prejudice, often met with, against the principle of 
satisfaction to divine justice, yet, in men, who have 
no public character, the principle sometimes dis- 
closes itself, with striking effect. "And Zaccheus 
6* 



66 DISCOURSE THIRD. 

said, the half of my goods I give unto the poor., 
and if I have wronged any man, I restore unto him 
fourfold." This man was a publican, or a farmer 
of the taxes, that is, he had paid into the Imperial, 
or Roman Treasury, cash to a certain amount, and 
was to repay himself, principal and interest, and 
the expense of collection, out of the difference be- 
tween the sum assessed and the sum paid, taking 
all the risk and delays, and odium too, he being 
a Jew. The temptations and the opportunities of 
those publicans, to commit extortion, were great. 
If justice is not near to conscience and character, 
conscience and character are near being lost. So- 
ciety never reposes long on injustice. Justice and 
judgment inhabit the divine throne. Behold ! the 
principle. God redeems sinners from his own jus- 
tice ! But, why not suspend or repeal his law ? 
"He abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself." 
Justice is one of his divine attributes, and- divine 
law is inherent in it ; and when it emanates from 
justice, the principle never is separate from God, as 
the human law-book is from dead men. Love 
may satisfy justice or law ; but if it were to destroy 
it, would it not be an unjust or an unlawful love? 
Justice must be satisfied with the mode, in which, 
love supplies its place. 

The more carefully we look into the subject of 
redemption, the more clearly it appears to us, that 
God must provide the price. Immortal souls! — 
can they be redeemed with mortal or perishable 



FREE GRACE. 67 

treasures ? Put these in contrast with the precious 
blood of Christ, — "as of a lamb, without blemish 
and without spot, who verily was fore-ordained, be- 
fore the foundation of the world ; but was mani- 
fested, in these last times, for you, who, by him,'do 
believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, 
and gave him glory, that your faith and ho'pe may 
be in God," — and, before the justice of God, or the 
just God, will they not wholly disappear, and leave 
the undivided merit with this precious blood of 
Christ ? He spared not his own Son, but deliver- 
ed him up to his justice, the Just for Unjust. 
"How shall he not, with him, also, freely give us 
all things?" The idea runs through the Scripture, 
that the benefits of redemption exceed the pardon 
of sin, and the restoration of the soul to the divine 
favor; that treasures of grace are opened by it, 
which never could have been realized, as mere re- 
wards of personal obedience. "But, God com- 
mendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were 
yet sinners, Christ died for us; much more then, 
being now justified by his blood, shall we be saved 
from wrath through him : for, if, while we wer e 
enemies, we were reconciled to God, by the death 
of his Son, much more, being reconciled, shall we 
be saved by his life ; nay, in all these things, we 
are more than conquerors through him that loved 
us. Now, unto him, that is able to do exceeding- 
ly abundantly, above all that we can ask or think, 
according to the power that woiketh in us, unto 



68 DISCOURSE THIRD. 

him, be glory in the church, by Christ Jesus, 
through all ages, world without end, Amen !" 

When we receive Christ, we shall with him, re- 
ceive all things, and without money or price, all 
things, with him, as free grace. 

Oh ! to grace, how great a debtor, 
Daily, I'm constrained to be ! 

Now, the sacrifices, which sinners give to God, — if 
they could merit pardon for sin, what more could 
they merit ? Would not the question, — how shall 
he not, for these sacrifices, which we give him, 
freely give us all things, — be impertinent ? Should 
it not rather be asked, — how can he return any 
.thing for a price so insignificant? Christianity dif- 
fers from all other religion, not only in the gift of 
God's own Son, but in the infinity of the free gifts, 
that are given with him. The proposition and the 
interrogatory challenge our entire faith, our fullest 
confidence. How shall he not, — what data have 
we to infer, what argument to prove, that he will 
not with him, — also, freely give us all things? Is 
any other gift, so great, so good, so dear to the 
Father, so desirable to man, as his own Son? If 
he spared not his own Son, but delivered him up 
to a painful and a shameful death, on the cross, to 
be numbered with the transgressors, how shall 
he not give any gifts, which cannot suffer ? Will 
he require money or price for any of them, after 
having spared his own Son? 






FREE GRACE. 69 

Faith and many other terms are common to dif- 
ferent religious systems, but not always with the 
same precise meaning. Do those, for instance, 
who offer sin-offerings to God, have the same objects 
of faith, as those, who believe, that God gives the 
sacrifice for the sinner? This, it is evident, cannot 
be. Among Christians, modes of faith are often 
found to vary, but, is he to be regarded, as a Scrip- 
tural believer, who believes, that the sinner, not 
God, gives the offering for sin? Does it not be- 
hoove those who so believe, to prove to their own 
conviction, at least, wherein their faith, or the ob- 
ject of it, differs from certain other modes of belief, 
which claim no affinity to Christianity ? Is it not 
equally important, to settle the question of, — who is 
the giver, as it is, to determine the quality of the 
gift? If the sinner believes, that he gives the sac- 
rificial price, must he not believe, that, he himself 
is the procurer? It is evident, that the difference 
between the writers of the New Testament, and 
their opposers, was not, — redemption and no re- 
demption, merely, or,— sacrifice and no sacrifice, 
merely. St. Paul told the men of Athens, that he 
perceived, they were too superstitious, for, among 
their altars, he beheld an altar, inscribed, — to the 
Unknown God. So, they had altars, and of 
course, sacrifices, and on these altars, they offered 
sacrifices to the Gods. 

Is it not strange, that, among the controversies 
upon the subjects of faith, we should so seldom 



70 DISCOURSE THIRD. 

meet with formal enunciations of the difference, 
that must result, from the giver of the sacrifice? 
For the want of attention to this point, may it not 
have happened, that there have been disputes, be- 
tween parties, without any j ust ground ? One creed 
teaches us to say,— I believe in Jesus Christ, the 
only begotten Son of God, born of the Virgin 
Mary, crucified under Pontius Pilate, dead and bu- 
ried, rose again the third day, ascended into heaven, 
and so on. But, why not add, — I believe, that God 
spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for 
us all; I believe, that, with him, also, he will free- 
ly give us all. things ; I believe that sinners cannot 
offer to God sin-offerings to merit the pardon of 
their own sins ; I believe that Jesus Christ hath 
obtained eternal redemption for us? The weak- 
ness of faith, so often to be found among believers? 
may, perhaps, in most instances, be traced to some 
defect in the creed itself, or its not embracing the 
counteracting piinciple of the doubts. One may 
read books, hear preaching and conversation, and 
scarcely hear this case of, — who is the giver of the 
sin-offering, — illustrated. In the division, between 
Mr. Wesley and Mr. Whitfield, which originated 
from a sermon of the former on this very text, both 
seem to have left the question of* — the givers, — out 
of view ; the leading point of dispute being, 
whether Christ died for all, or only for a part, 
Those ardent-minded men were so pre-engaged by 
this question, that they found neither time nor lei- 



FREE GRACE. 71 

sure to harmonize other opinions. 

It is also probable, that, the rhetorical manner, in 
which the sufferings and death of the Redeemer 
have been exhibited, has proved unfavorable to dis- 
crimination and precision. Justice, in this mode 
of preaching, is painted to the imagination, as a 
vindictive passion, rather than, as a principle or 
law, analogies to which may be found in the 
general laws of nature. The celebrity of Mr. 
Whitfield's discourse, on the offering up of Isaac, 
is well known. All, no doubt, that tender and 
sympathetic emotions could effect, was effected by 
the most pathetic of speakers. But, pathos seems 
not to have been the Scriptural object. The lead- 
ing idea, in St. Paul's mind, is the faith of the fa- 
ther in the resurrection. "By faith, he offered 
him up, being persuaded, that God was able to raise 
him from the dead, from which, also, he received 
him, in a figure." It is difficult, to conceive of a 
case of stronger faith in the resurrection, when 
taken in connection with the patriarch's faith in the 
promise, — "In Isaac shall thy seed be called." — 
for, if he had slain Isaac, the promise could not 
possibly have been fulfilled, without his resurrec- 
tion. 

We are disposed to consider justice, as we do 
gravity; — relatively, to the objects of its action. 
Justice is the general governing principle of socie- 
ty, as gravity is of nature. Now let it be supposed 
that an edifice, a temple for instance, should by any 



72 DISCOURSE THIRD. 

means have been demolished, and we shall at once 
admit, that it cannot be re-edified, without some 
means to overcome gravity, which acts upon every 
part of the ruins. We should not, then, hesitate to 
say, that a fallen building can never be rebuilt, un- 
less the law of gravity is satisfied. No love, on the 
part of him, who is disposed to rebuild it, could do 
it, without scaffolding, inclined planes, or mechani- 
cal powers. Any person, looking over these ruins, 
without the aid of science, would say, these mate- 
rials are too heavy to be raised immediately by hu- 
man hands. The same ideas prevail in the minds 
of thosej who contemplate the vast structures of an- 
tiquity; they cannot forbear the inquiry, by what 
means those massy blocks and columns could have 
been raised, not supposing a miracle or the suspen- 
sion of gravity. But, it is not necessary, to spend 
a moment in attempting to prove, that justice is the 
basis of all governments, divine and human. St. 
John's law of love and law of liberty satisfied jus- 
tice. One of the main points, on which, all the 
law and the prophets hang, is, — thou shall love thy 
neighbor as thyself; — and is not this very like jus- 
tice itself? What law would require more to satis- 
fy it ? Man, in his relations to his Maker and his 
fellow men, is bound by the principles of justice, 
which it is the aim of the law-giver to express in 
laws. If he offends or falls under justice, it pun- 
ishes him or threatens punishment; for justice can- 
not immediately change its own nature or mode of 






FREE GRACE. 73 

action, without a universal change. One exception 
to its action destroys equity and becomes partiality. 
Almighty power works no miracles to suspend jus- 
tice, though it may suspend gravity, it being a law 
of matter, and not like justice, an attribute of the 
divine mind. The just God governs his creatures 
justly. His love is not partial, not unjust. The 
Scripture is as express, as words can be, that there 
is One Mediator between God and men, the man 
Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all. 
To mediate, where justice is concerned, the re- 
demption principle cannot be excluded ; without it, 
there could be no Mediator, no mediation ; the trans- 
actions become immediate and direct, and no case 
is involved in which justice is retrospective. Jus- 
tice never says and unsays, does and undoes, never 
slumbers or sleeps, in heaven or on earth. One of 
the great purposes of redemption is, to establish a 
Church, in which the Mediator is to be head, a 
Church, which shall be commensurate with the 
habitable world, a holy Church, in which there 
shall be none to hurt or destroy. How is this great 
community, which is to learn war no more, to be 
governed ? How, if not by justice and equity, un- 
less justice is satisfied that it should be governed by 
some other means? Can it be governed by love, 
unless justice is satisfied? But, to satisfy justice 
must not the principle be retained ? But the prin- 
ciple of justice is retained in a redeemed Church. 
Thi3 is the name, whereby the Lord of this Church 
7 



74 DISCOURSE THIRD. 

shall be called. — "The Lord our righteousness," — 
" Thy Maker is thy husband ; the Lord of hosts is 
his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of 
Israel," — " The God of the whole earth shall he 
be called." How could a Church stand, against 
which violated and unsatisfied justice were con- 
tinually urged? Could it stand against these accu- 
sations, by faith? Faith, in what? In the mercy 
of God. Is this mercy revealed in the Bible? In 
this book, mercy and love, and grace and kindness, 
are all associated with the principles of justice and 
the fact of redemption. " Being justified freely by 
his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ 
Jesus." The title (as some speak,) to grace, with- 
out redemption, would not be clear. After that, the 
kindness and love of God, our Saviour, appeared. 
" It is a faithful saying, and worthy of all accepta- 
tion, that Christ Jesus came unto the world, to save 
sinners." There is mercy, for there is plenteous re- 
demption. If it were permitted to inquire, what is 
the basis of the holiness of God, should we not come 
to the conclusion, that it is justice? Is not the 
idea of the suspension or repeal of a holy law of 
God, equivalent to the idea of a suspension or a 
repeal of the holy character or nature of God? 

To make the objects of our faith, is human inven- 
tion in religion. Over the mere act of faith, the 
will exercises but a limited influence. It is not 
easy for men to have one object of faith, and be- 
lieve in another. The object directs and determines 



FREE-GRACE, iO 

the faith, rather than the faith the object. Now, of 
the mercy and justice of God, we can know noth 
ing objectively, for the purposes of faith, save by 
revelation. Even, if we could form clear and dis 
tinct perceptions of them, as principles, we have nt 
means but revelation to ascertain, how the divine 
wisdom has modified them by combination in sys- 
tem. Let the character of the people of these 
United States, be ever so well appreciated by for- 
eigners, ignorant of our constitution, and what con- 
ception, could they have of that instrument? The 
taking it for granted, that it is based upon freedom, 
would most probably mislead them. The freedom 
of all (he parties concerned, is among the causes of 
the complex character of the charter of our liber- 
ties, and proved to be among the greatest difficul- 
ties, in its formation and adoption. 

It is the common desire of all Christians that 
Christianity should become the universal religion. 
The fact, that it will become so, is an object of 
prophecy. But, causes of doubt are daily pre- 
sented to our minds, in history and in passing 
events. The gifts, necessary to the accomplish- 
ment of the predictions, seem to fail. What church 
is there, yet, which can convert (he inquiry in the 
text, — "how shall he not, with him, also freely 
give us all things," — into an affirmation ; or say, — 
he has given us all things? Probably many zeal- 
ous Christians do now believe more, and be- 
lieve more ardently, than some of the primitive 



76 DISCOURSE THIRD. 

ones did. But, it is not those who have the most 
light and the greatest number of objects, who al- 
ways see the best; but, those who have a well- 
defined object, placed in a proper point of light. 
A hundred matters of faith and of controversy now 
exist among Christians, which, perhaps, were not 
thought of in early times. Our own mind, for 
years, was occupied with the doctrine of Free 
Grace. We believed it, defended it, and urged it, 
with our whole soul, not doubting but that our 
faith was like St. Paul's, and that of our opponents 
like St. Paul's opponents : but, we thought not of 
the distinction, expressed in this discourse ; heard 
no one announce it, so as to fix it in our under- 
standing; or i£we read it or heard it preached, or 
conversed about it, either did not comprehend it, or 
forgot it. And we are now inclined to suppose, 
that it is no uncommon thing, among Ministers and 
Christians, to remain perplexed with modern opin- 
ions, without carrying their minds back to the time 
of the Apostles, and ascertaining what was the 
general state of sacrifice in the world, up to that pe- 
riod. Can we be mistaken in concluding, that the 
prevailing opinion among the Jews and the Nations 
was, that sinners were to give to God, or the Gods, 
sin -offerings, and that they recognised the principle 
of redemption ? 

Now, the question, — what did the Apostles teach 
these people? — presents itself. Did they teach 
Jews and Gentiles, that God himself gave the sin- 



F R E E GRACE. 7? 

offering or sacrifice, in the death of his Son, Jesus 
Christ, upon the cross? Between ihe Aposiies and 
their hearers, there was no cause of dispute, respect- 
ing the fact of sacrifices for sin, but, who gave the 
sacrifice, God or the sinner. To admit or affirm, 
that God gave the sacrifice, was to believe or to ex- 
press the belief. For to those, who were taught, 
that the sinner gives the sacrifice, this was the 
great point of unbelief to be overcome. The 
believing Minister exclaimed, — ■" God forbid, thatl 
should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus 
Christ!" u I am determined to know nothing a- 
mong you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified." 
The blood, that flowed from the body of him, who 
was crucified on this cross, cleanseth from all sin, 
If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we 
have fellowship one with another, and the blood of 
Jesus Christ ; his Son, cleanseth us from all sin. 
God ? s sacrifice and ours can be united, only upon 
the belief, that the former does not cleanse from all 
sin; but, it is enough for all, enough for each, 
enough for evermore ! 

. Had this difference between Christianity and all 
other systems of religion, which existed or had ex- 
isted in the world, been fully understood by philo- 
sophical writers, how could they have classed the 
religion of the New Testament with priest-craft? 
In thus classing it, they have given evidence 
that they did not know the nature or the tendency 
of Christianity. It is well known, that the priests 
7* 



78 DISCOtlRSE THIRD, 

who ministered at all altars, whether Jewish or 
or Heathen, took the lead, in all persecutions^ 
against Jesus and his religion. They did not mis- 
take : they anticipated effects and they saw that 
Christianity would be fatal to their office and to 
their work; that it would put an end to the altars 
and the offerings or sacrifices for sin by the sinners 
themselves. They could not help foreseeing the 
consequences of, — " Behold ! the lamb of God who 
taketh away the sin of the world." One of the 
complaints against the new religion, was, that the 
altars were forsaken through its progress, and that 
th'e victims for sacrifice w T ere not purchased in the 
markets. This must needs have been, if the peo- 
ple turned Christians. The Ministers of the Gos- 
pel, according to St. Paul's definition, cannot be 
priests, for they have nothing to offer on the altar, 
sinners having no sin-offering to bring to them. 
They cry to sinners not to bring sacrifices, but, — ■ 
"Ho ! every one that thirsteth ,comeye to the wa- 
ters ; and he that hath no money, come, buy, and 
eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk, without mo- 
ney and without price." " Seek ye the Lord, 
while he may be found; call ye upon him, while 
he is near." " Let the wicked man forsake his 
way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and 
let him return unto the Lord, and he will have 
mercy, and to our God, for he will abundantly 
pardon." They cry;— 



FREE GRACE. 79 

Jesus, our great High Priest, 

Hath full atonement made ; 
Ye weary spirits rest, 

Ye mournful souls be glad ; 
The year of Jubilee is come, 

Return, ye ransomed sinners, home ! 

It is ihe circumstance of the offender's being the 
offerer of (he sacrifice', through the Priest, which 
confers power and influence upon Priests. The 
offering being committed to them, the pardon is al- 
so expected to be returned through them. It is for 
them to say, whether the sacrifice is accepted, and 
if not, to show the reason why. The priest, being 
thus placed between the sinner and ihe God, ob- 
tains a control over conscience, which enables him 
to exercise an authority, in many instances, abso- 
lute. But this system is reversed, under the Gos- 
pel; the consequential priest-craft becomes impos- 
sible. If ministers of the Gospel exercise power, 
the}^ must assume it, as politicians; unless indeed, 
they 'succeed in so corrupting Christianity, as to. 
claim and maintain a divine right, to offer sin-of- 
ferings for the sinners and the right to forgive their 
sins / — a right and a power which the Apostles, 
personally and by doctrines, wholly disclaimed, 
and which is indeed impossible, while God gives 
the sacrifice. In the present poverty of the church 
in gifts and graces, should not all examine the 
ground and foundation of faith? Is it not to be 
feared, that much of what passes under the name 



SO DISGOURSE THIRD. 

of faith, is nearly allied to presumption, or a forcing of 
the mind, to make its acts conform to our wants and 
wishes ? In the progress of the mind from faith to 
faith, its acts of believing, in several cases, conform 
to reason. There is a sequence in the operations, 
which bears an*analogy to inference. " How shall 
he not with him, also freely give us all things ?" — is 
followed by other questions and answers, placed ar- 
gumentatively, as,—" Who shall lay any thing to 
the charge of God's elect?" " It is God that justi- 
fieth." This is like a mode of reasoning. He, 
who believes that he is justified by faith, or that 
God hath justified him, must infer in his own mind, 
that he has nothing to fear from any accuser. 
Again,—-" Who is he that condemneih?" "It is 
Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen -again, 
who is even at the right hand of God, who also 
maketh intercession for us." The believer comes 
to this conclusion, that he has nothing (o fear from 
any other tribunal or judge ; and he must so reason, 
after the scripture manner, or force his faith, by 
the mere efforts of volition, or suffer from a fear 
of condemnation. So again, — " Who shall sepa- 
rate us from the love of God ?" " I am persuaded 

tf ia t ? — nor any other creature shall be 

able to separate us from the love of God which is 
in Christ Jesus our Lord. 5 ' The first questions re- 
late to judgments or legal prosecutions ; the second 
to force or power. " I am persuaded," that no 
power can forcibly " separate us from the love of 



FREE GRACE. 81 

God." St. John comes to the same conclusion. 
"Ye- have overcome them, little children, because 
greater is he, that is in you, than he, that is the 
world." This may be called rational faith. The 
foundation will bear the superstructure. The 
premises will warrant the inferences, and the causes 
are adequate to the effects. The Gospel abounds 
with this kind of ratiocination. " If ye, being evil, 
know how to give good gifts unto your children, 
how much more, shall your heavenly Father give 
the holy spirit, to them that ask him ?" So again, 
in the argument for trust in providence. " If God 
so clothe the grass, how much more, will he clothe 
you, oh ye of little faith!" When truths and 
facts are given as a basis of our faith, our reason, 
in its highest exercise, can aid our final confidence. 
A true logical deduction is identical with an object 
of faith. We never doubt the truth of an infer- 
ence, but only the mode of operation, lest some 
error might have crept into the mind. " How shall 
he not, with him, also freely give us all things?" 
Do we admit the premises to be true, — " that 
God spared not his own Son, but delivered him up 
for us all ?" Then, the greatness and the freeness of 
the gift, his Own Son, and the end, for which he 
gave him, make the conclusion entirely credible or 
reasonable. The effort or trying to believe, or put- 
ting the mind under voluntary compulsion, by re- 
fusing to look at the principles, which, in a manner, 
challenge our faith and shame our doubts, not only 



82 DISCOURSE THIRD. 

often fails, from revulsion of mind, but may injure 
the mind itself, and render it more susceptible of 
error. 

It was not, until the Saviour had exhausted ar- 
gument upon his antagonists, that he upbraided 
them with their unbelief. " If ye believe not me," 
says he, " believe the works ; — if I had not come 
and done greater works, than any other man among 
them, they had not had sin." Their condemna- 
tion was, that they loved darkness rather than 
light, because their deeds were evil; not that they 
did not try to force themselves to see without light. 
The great foundation, — truth, is revealed, is made 
manifest: it claims our confidence, but difficulties, 
wants, and weaknesses accumulate upon the be- 
liever; his faith wavers and grows feeble, — shall 
he force or compel himself to believe ? Will he not 
thus rather conceal his unbelief, than increase his 
faith? "Oh, thou of little faith, wherefore didst 
thou doubt?" Did not St. Peter's reason or argu- 
ment fail him ? His request to his Lord, to bid 
him come unto him, was evidently predicated upon 
the evidence of the power of Jesus, in his own 
walking upon the water. The evidence of the fact 
was good and sufficient ; and if the mind of St. 
Peter had remained steady, his faith would have 
sustained him, for his conclusion was logical. 
When Jesus stilled the tempest, they all marvell- 
ed, saying, — " What manner of person is this? 
For even the wind and the sea obey him !" Hav- 



FREE GRACE. bd 

ing this evidence of his power over the winds and 
the waves, would not a future doubt of his power, 
then, have been unreasonable? But it is true, in 
many instances, in the course of Christian experi- 
ence, that the modes of the divine operations are 
wholly concealed from reason, as well as from 
sense ; but even in such cases, reason may become 
more abstract. Abraham, in the last resort, rested 
wholly upon the veracity and power of God, being 
fully persuaded, that what God had promised, he 
was Me, also, to perform. 
Cincinnati, January, 1838. 



DISCOURSE FOURTH. 

FAITH IN THE SON OF GOD 



For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son 3 
that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish, but have ever- 
lasting life. 

John i.ii, 16. 

Would the declaration, — God so loved the world, 
that whoever is bora, and lives, and dies, shall not 
perish, but have everlasting life — be equivalent, or 
identical in meaning with the text ? The difference 
in the meaning of (he word, so, in the real and the 
supposed case, is plain. In the supposed case, the 
results would be immediate ; in the real case, they 
are mediate. The inference from the text is, that 
God didnot so love the world, as to save it, without 
the gift of his only begotten son, or without faith in 
him. Should it be said of a man, that he so loved 
the beggars that he let not one pass without giving 
some money, would not this kind of benevolence 
be questionable? Daily experience in society 
proves, that immediate benevolence tends in many 
cases to defeat its own ends, by increasing rather 
than lessening misery. The eyes of benevolence 
must not be blindfolded, as those of justice are rep- 
resented to be. Good men must love the poor, so 
that their gifts may do more good than harm. Can 
we read a page in the New Testament, about the 



FAITH IN THK SON OP GOD. 85 

love of Gorl, without perceiving that it is not blind 
to consequences, and that it restrains itself from do- 
ing good, when greater evil may come of it ? -Now,— 
if God so loved the world as to save it immediately", 
it might be saved without faith ; and consequently, 
without the works, that spring from faith, or the 
love, by which faith works. Immediate salvation 
is, unconditional salvation. Faith in a mediator is 
the condition of salvation, the mediator being an 
object of faith. The gift of God's only begotten 
Son. as a mediator, makes salvation conditional; 
faith, in this case, including alliance or allegiance 
as well as reliance. We owe our salvation to the 
mediate gift ; and this gift is an intelligent agent, 
able to command, to direct, to protect, and to pun- 
ish, as well as to save. Faith is not a mere reli- 
ance upon an efficacious or saving cause or principle. 
And when we are saved, our gratitude is not like the 
praise of the bridge which carries the passenger safe 
over. To believe in the only begotten Son of God, 
is to believe all that he is; the same as, to believe in 
gold , is to believe that it is gold, and not that it is silver 
or copper or lead much less that it is stone or earth* 
The volition and the attributes or the great object of 
gospel or saving faith, are apt to become indistinct and 
faith in him to become more like faith in things, than 
in a person. If the only begotten Son of God be not 
a saviour only, but a law giver and a judge, and 
faith in him is restricted to his saving power, it is 
not complete and so may expose us to error and 
S 



86 DISCO V BSE FOURTH. 

dangej. We may be in a condition to need the 
commanding authority of a head, to direct us ; but 
if we had no faith in such authority, it will not act 
upon us. Who can be ignorant, when under a 
temptation to disobey, how necessary it becomes to 
sustain obedience, to bring the authority of com- 
mend fully to bear upon the will, and how unbe- 
lief undermines such authority? We may need 
protecting power; but if we have no faith in 
such a power, in the time of danger our cour- 
age must fail us. There are contracted views 
and notions of Christianity. Certain persons 
seem to suppose, that to be Christians, is to live like 
beggars upon the divine bounty, or by a kind of 
hand-to-mouth manner ; but Christianity is con- 
stituted into a chinch or kingdom, of which the on- 
ly begotten Son of God is King. In such a rela- 
tion, faith goes much further than — iC God, be mer- 
ciful to me a sinner!" God hath given unto us 
eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 

Faith in benevolence or love, in any case, divine 
or human, may be indistinct or indeterminate, and 
furnish no clue to practice. The love of God man- 
ifests itself, (so to speak) intelligibly, in the gift of 
his Son. "The word was made flesh, and dwelt 
among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory, as of 
the only begotten Son of the Father, full of grace 
and truth." The love of God, in the gift of his 
Son, acquires a mental and moral character ; it 
thinks and speaks, it wills and acts,— God mani- 



FAITH IN THE SON OF GOD, 87 

fested in the flesh. The love of God,— "God 
manifested in the flesh !" Sinful human nature is 
exalted to goodness and greatness, by faith in Jesus 
Christ. " We have not received the spirit of bon- 
dage again to fear ; but the spirit of adoption, 
whereby we cry Abba, Father! And the Spirit 
beareth wilness with our spirit, that we are the chil- 
dren of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of 
God and joint heirs with Christ. 3 ' The privileges 
of Christians are represented in Scripture, as very 
great. Believers are called to glory and to virtue. 
Precious and exceeding great promises are given 
unto them, that through these, they might become 
partakers of the divine naiure. The graces of the 
Holy Spirit are all included, in this eternal life, 
which is through faith. 1^ it not strange, while 
(he Scriptures seem to evince the poveity and insuf- 
ficiency of human language, to express the honor 
and glory and blessedness which believers receive, 
through the gift of God's love, that the gift himself 
should be described by certain persons as no greater 
nor better than a man ; and they should so holdout 
the opinion, that, whosoever, believeth that (he un- 
speakable gift of God, is but a mere man, that he 
is not even superhuman or angelical, shall not per- 
ish but have everlasting life? Do the temptation 
and the danger of unbelief, then, consist in leading 
the mind, to believe too much, instead of the oppo- 
site extreme? If so, why did the Jews regard it 
as an unpardonable offence in Jesas, that, according 



88 DISCOURSE FOURTH. 

to their own understanding of his meaning, he 
made himself to be the Son of God? The Jews 
said unto him ; — - How long dost thou make us to 
doubt ? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. Je- 
sus answered: The works that I do in my father's 
name, they bear witness of me. My sheep hear 
my voice, and they follow me; and I give unto 
them eternal life; and they shall never perish, 
neither shall any pluck them out of my hand. My 
father, who gave them to me, is greater than all ; 
and none is able to pluck them out of his hand. I 
and my Father are one. The Jews answered him, 
saying; For a good work, stone we thee not, but 
for blasphemy, and because, that, thou being a 
man, makest thyself God." Again ; — ' ; What think 
ye of Christ, whose Son is he? They say unto 
him, David's. But if David calieih him Lord, 
how then is he his Son?" This question con- 
founded the Jews. The happiness and glory of 
the believers, is made to consist in their nearness to- 
Christ, and conformity to him. "That, where I 
am, (says he) my servants may be also, that they 
may behold my glory." " Our conversation is in 
heaven, from whence, we look ior the coming of 
our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile 
body, and fashion it like unto his glorious body." 
" Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou 
into the joy of thy Lord." The intention in Scrip- 
ture language, is to extol the Lamb of God, the all- 
atoning lamb ; to magnify his person and his office ; 



F.HTH IN THE SON OF GOD.' 89 

and not to bring them down to a low and human 
standard, or to show (as some speak) that the Son 
of Mary was a good man, or to exhort men to be- 
lieve in him, because he is a good man, that is, not 
a bad man. It seems, indeed, that it requires no 
great effort, even for infidels, to believe so much at 
intervals ! 

As thojc, who incline to advocate the immediate 
love of God, generally rely upon St. John, as their 
chief authority, we will give his own words in his first 
epistle. " He that ioveth not, knoweth not God 5 
for God is love. In this, was manifest the love of 
God towards us, because ih&t God sent his only be- 
gotten Son into the world, that we might live 
through him. Herein, is love, not that we loved 
God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be 
the propitiation for our sins." This shows, that the 
conception of the love of God, in the mind of the 
Apostle, was no' an abstract idea of benevolence. 
He did not conceive, that God so loved the world, 
as to save sinners in their sins ; which would be the 
same, in effect, as to save them in their unbelief, 
He lias said that the whole world lieih in wicked- 
ness, and of course, that it could not be the object 
of God's complacency, but, at most, of his pity and 
compassion. This love of compassion manifested 
itself, in devising and providing means, by which, 
to save sinners from perishing and to put them in 
possession of evedasting life. What was the plan? 
It was to give his only begotten Son, as an object 
8* 



90 DliC VR0t FOURTH* 

of faiih or trust, and of allegiance, to be confided in 
and obeyed. To have given him, as an object of 
obedience only, and not of trust-; it would have 
been necessary to have given him power to compel 
obedience. But faith refers religion kr the mind 
ah 3 to the will or heart. It is well said, that faith 
is influenced 1 , by evidence or testimony. It is un- 
reasonable, to require men to believe, without some 
evidence of the kind, the nature of the case admits 
of. Had no evidence or testimony been given of 
the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, how could 
faith in it as a fact, have been required? To be- 
lieve, without testimony, is an act of little mental 
or moral value. Men who believe in ignorance, or 
from deception, or from compulsion, without any 
evidence, do not believe, after the manner, which 
the Gospel requires him to believe. w We have 
seen, and do testify, that the Father sent the Son 
to be the Saviour of the world. We are his wit- 
nesses." The Apostles did indeed preach, exhort, 
and persuade men io believe, but they djd so, be- 
cause they were witnesses, and had borne testimony 
to the facts or truths, they preached. " Search the 
Scriptures, for in them ye think, ye have eternal 
life, and they are they, that testify of me." The 
argument drawn from the agreement between the 
prophecy of Isaiah and the crucifixion, turns upon 
the testimony of the witnesses of the crucifixion. 
A men gratuitous assumption of the case, by a 
preacher, would be of no account. To believe that 



FAITH INTHE SON OF GOD. 91 

God gave his only begotten son and to believe in 
Him, requires action, and admits of a high degree 
of it. The manner of the Apostles, was to secure 
a rational belief, that Jesus was the Son of God: 
and, if by any means, this faith became separated 
from obedience, in theory or practice, to demonstrate 
that such a separation, or faith alone without obe- 
dience, was not according to the plan cf salvation 
by faith. Hence, the seeming contradictions be- 
tween the opposing of works and the opposing of 
faith without works. If the same person be allud- 
ed to, he is supposed to be in two different slates of 
mind. The first argument is to gain the mind; 
and the second to gain the will. On these two 
points, much apprehension is common. To exhort 
men to practice or to action, while we have reason 
to think that they err in judgment, may prove worse 
than useless; it may confirm them in error. When 
a man is known to be on a wrong track, he is not 
encouraged to quicken his steps. The first attempt, 
is to induce him to stop, then, to convince him he 
is on a wrong course, and the next, to set him right. 
.St. Paul said, — "I bear my countrymen record, 
that they have a zeal of God, not according to know- 
ledge; for they being ignorant of God's righteous- 
ness, are going about to establish their own righteous- 
ness." Logic isthe proper way, to bring truth to bear 
upon the mind. To believe the truth, we must know 
the truth ; to believe the fact, we must know the 
fact. God did not give his Son to conquer men, by 



92 DISCOURSE FOURTH 

force, against (heir wills, and so compel lb em to 
obey. But, there have been religious warriors and 
conquerors, who have forced men by the power or 
terror of their arms, both to believe and to obey, to 
believe their creeds and to obey their laws; and 
the sincerity of many of their converts has been well 
tested. It it not necessary to the sincerity of a man's 
religion, that he should be reasoned into it. Those 
who come to the conclusion, that none but the con- 
verts of reason are sincere, assume their own pre- 
mises, without attending to facts. He must know 
little of human nature, who makes fear to be only 
a cause, or an effect, or an associate of hypocrisy. 
It may prove a master passion, which swallows up' 
the rest. The terrifying aspects of ecclesiastical 
power, are not like occasional gleams and flashes of 
lightning ; hut, like a bright, blazing meteor, for- 
ever above the horizon. 

The New Testament is the most argumentative 
of all books. It found the world as full of error as 
of sin. It could not advance a step, without setting 
wrong-headed men right. The men who were 
looking and wailing most anxiously for the Mes- 
siah, wanted not a Messiah, as an object of faith tut 
of sense. The flashes of his falchion, and net the 
light of his truth, would have met their anticipations. 
In the public disputations with Jesus, nothing could 
have been more perplexing to the Jews, than his 
answers and arguments. "Now we know thou hast 
a devil," said they, "why hear ye him?" 



FAITH IN THE SON OF GOD. 93 

The religion of the ancient nations has been trans- 
mitted to us, by the poets and the philosophers. Tne 
former exhibit the religion of the people, according 
to their sculptures and paintings; the latter, the re- 
ligion of the mind ur thought, which could not be 
wholly embodied in imagery, and is called by cer- 
tain men, the sublime speculations of the philoso- 
phers. It is remarkable, that the wiitings of the 
priests, or the theological works, in their original 
form, have not come down to our time. Could it 
have been, that they were not circulated, among 
the people, and that they perished in the sanctuar- 
ies of the temples? The poems of Homer have, 
been called the Bible of the Greeks, and every an- 
tiquarian knows, how nearly the religious descrip- 
tions in them agree with ancient sculpture. But, 
nothing in the poets or the philosophers, is to be 
found answering to the living gift of divine love, 
and faith in him, as the medium of everlasting life. 
According to the mycologists or their theogonies, 
the gods were not deficient in offspring, but none of 
their sons or daughters brought life and immortali- 
ty to light. No one could be relied on, as the sa- 
viour of the soul from sin, no one could be follow- 
ed through the regeneration. 

The human mind is so constituted, that the name 
or existence of a person, when announced to it,, 
gives rise to a train of biographical ideas; but ex- 
perience teaches us, that these spontaneous ideas 
are not trustworthy, and we seek for actual descrip- 



94 DISCOURSE FOURTH. 

tion. The incarnations of the gods, in mythology, 
are evidently allegorical. Now the question, — hew 
did God give his only begotten Son? — can only be 
solved, by a reference to the four writers of his 
birth, life and death. They all agree, that he gave 
him to poverty, and they explain how this fact came 
to pass. The house of David, by a series of con- 
quests and revolutions, had fallen into great obscur- 
ity. It was the interest of conquerors to humble a 
house, which once stood high ; and it should seem, 
that for a longtime, no very distinguished man had 
appeared in the line of succession. And finally, 
the titie to the throne of David and Solomon, was 
found in an heiress, who was espoused according 
to ancient usage, to the heir in the nearest lateral 
branch. This heiress of the house of David, was 
Mary, the mother of Jesus. When the Scripture 
speaks of the poverty of this family, it means, as 
kings and queens, or princes and princesses. As a 
prince of Judah, as a branch sprung from the stem 
of Jesse, as the seed of David according to the flesh, 
Jesus was poor ; but the family property in Bethle- 
hem, was assessed by the Roman assessors, in the 
name of his mother. We have seen poor, conquer- 
ed or exiled kings, in our own day. It appears, that 
Joseph and Mary did not reside in Bethlehem, 
though their title to their patrimonial inheritance 
was not invalidated or overlooked, even by the Ro- 
mans. But, no evidence of affluence appears in the 
family, while they resided at Nazareth. Enough 



FAITH IN THE SON OF GOD. VO 

is known of the jealousy of the tributary king Her- 
od and his family, and of the vigilance of the Em- 
perors to render it probable, that the only safety of 
the house of David was in its obscurity. But so 
it was, by his own showing, the descendant of so 
many illustrious ancestors had not where to lay his 
head, during that ministry, in which he went about 
doing and teaching good. 

The absence of all wealth and power and gran- 
deur, was equally remarkable among his chosen 
and confidential friends : they were all selected by 
him from the retired walks of life, and while they 
conferred no honor upon their Lord, waked up no 
suspicion in the bosom of ambition. When the 
youngest son of Jesse offered to accept the chal- 
lenge of the uncireumcised Philistine, who had de- 
fied the armies of the living God, to remove all sur- 
prise and distrust he referred to his youthful ex- 
ploits; — Ci Thy servant," said he to the King, " slew 
a lion and a bear." The young Jesus of Nazareth 
had given no such evidence of his prowess ; he was 
not a shepherd, but his early life was employed in 
the arts. Thus, verifying die language of the pro- 
phet -, — il As a root out of dry ground, he hath no 
form, nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, 
there is no beauty that we shall desire him." Not 
indeed, that his youth passed away wholly without 
notice. At the age of twelve, he surprised the doc- 
tors with his precocious knowledge of the law. And 
when in the course of his public ministry, occasion 



96 DISCOURSE FOURtH. 

called for any display of his power, the people were 
ready to make him a king, fearless of the conse- 
quences from their mighty conquerors ; thus show- 
ing how strongly they were disposed to regard the 
promised Messiah, as their temporal deliverer. The 
relative condition of Jesus to the Sanhedrim and 
to the Imperial Authority, is one of the most in- 
teresting circumstances of his life and ministry. If 
he did cot act the King, the Sanhedrim would 
not own him as the Messiah ; if lie did, the Impe- 
rial legions would be set in array against him. 
How eventful, and yet, how apparently natural 
were the results of his selected alternative ! " Art 
thou a King, then? said Pilate. Jesus answered, 
Thou hast said. Shall I crucify your King? said 
Pilate (o the Jews. The Jews said, we have no 
King but Caesar." " And Pilate wrote this inscrip 
tion on the cross in three languages : Jesus of Naza- 
reth, the King of the Jews." St. Paul says, that 
Jesus witnessed a good confession before Pontius 
Pilate. But the Jews, who wanted a kin^to de- 
liver them from Caesar, acknowledged Caesar as 
their King. What a confession ! Taking all the 
circumstances into consideration which led to the 
crucifixion, together with the three years instruc- 
tion given by Jesus and his disciples, it will be 
perceived that every page furnishes internal evidence 
of their fidelity and identity. To no other person 
and to no other cause, can they have any applica- 
tion. The whole, taken separately or combined, 



FAITH IN THE SON OF GOD. 97 

is faith-producing ; is, as is well said, " written that 
ye might believe," — that is, written evidence. A 
biography much more splendid, might have fur- 
nished less evidence of the declaration : — " That, 
as Moses lifted up the serpent, in the wilderness, 
even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that who- 
soever believeth in him, should not perish, but have 
everlasting life." Should an inquiry be made, what 
certain texts prove? — the answer might be, that 
Christ died for us ; that God gave his only begotten 
Son to die for us; that he was lifted up upon the 
cross as Moses lifted up the serpent; that he died 
upon the cross. This event was constantly in the 
mind of Jesus. He knew ail the causes which 
would have defeated this purpose. To have acted 
the King, to have chosen servants to fight, and to 
have conquered, would only have produced a king- 
dom of this world, in this world. And in that case 
more evidence would have been required to prove 
that the end would be everlasting life, than is now 
required, to prove the whole gospel. 

It is not enough to say that religion offers no world- 
ly motives; if it has them, men may take them. Jesus 
not only offered no worldly motives, but he had none 
to offer. Even his miracles could not often have-been 
repealed, without a liability to perversion in worldly 
minds. To want every thing m this world, and to 
believe (hat we shall have every thing in the world 
to come, may become a motive to a worldly-minded 
man, "in the ardor of battle, to meet death with he- 
9 



98 DISCOURSE FOURTH. 

roism. So, no doubt, many a carnal hearted Jew, 
had he been permitted, would have fought for Je- 
sus as others did light for the temple in its final 
overthrow. But to fight the good fight of faith 
so a3 to lay hold on eternal life, we must avoid the 
stimulus of carnal dispositions as much as the use 
of carnal weapons. St. Paul, whose aim and ef- 
fort were to attain eternal life, by the resurrection 
of the dead, calculated upon a fellowship with the 
sufferings of Christ and being made conformable 
to his death. 

The common objection against, salvation by faith, 
that faith is not under the control of the will, that 
it is not in the power of man, to believe what he 
pleases, has no application to this text. The love 
of God here, is not a general or an indefinite pro- 
position ; its mode of operation is defined. How 
does God love the world ? So, and not any or 
every how. Presumption and despair require pre- 
ventives and remedies. Presumption is common to 
the most of men. Despair is the more frequent be- 
setment of the modest, the diffident and the sincere. 
The men, who are prone to think of themselves 
more highly than they ought to think, may natu- 
rally enough presume that God thinks as highly of 
them, as they do of themselves. Such men want 
no* condition or criterion or standard, for the com- 
munication of favors from God or men. Gifts to 
them, are rather matters of pride than of humility. 
They would lay God under an obligation- to give, 



FAITH IN THE SON OF GOD. 99 

rather than themselves J.0 receive. Men, so pre- 
sumptious and proud, must be humbled ; and they 
cannot be so effectually humbled as by faith in the 
Son of God, as his gift, and as an object of faith. 
What humbling views must they have of them- 
selves, and of their sias, who believe that they must 
have perished, without this unspeakable gift of 
God! 

Was it for crimes, that I have done, 

He groaned upon the tree ? 
Amazing pity, grace unknown, 

And love beyond degree ! 

If the greatness of the danger, and the greatness 
ef the difficulty of the rescue from it, may be es- 
timated by the greatness of the means provided, sure- 
ly the danger of the sinner and the difficulty of his 
salvation must have been great indeed. Oh, pre- 
sumptuous mortal! — to think you merit the love of 
God, to think that God delights in you ! — Why, he 
pities you, he has compassion upon you, he is mer- 
ciful, and gracious, and long-suffering. You are 
perishing in your sins, and he is not willing you 
should perish ; but, rather, that you should come to 
the knowledge of the truth and live. It is, because 
his compassion fails not, that you are not consumed. 
You say you cannot believe, that God gave his 
only begotten Son ; and why can you not. believe 
it? Is it because, that God is too good, or that you 
suppose, you are too good ? You are a great believ- 



100 DISCOURSE FOURTH. 

er in the love of God ; you boast, you glory in this 
faith ) and you censure and reproach others, for be- 
lieving that God is not love, and does not love 3011! 
Is it, (hen, no evidence of the love of God, that he 
gave his only begotten son ? Mistaken man ! The 
cause of your unbelief is in yourself. You are too 
good in your own estimation, to believe. You have 
such an exalted conception of your own goodness, 
that you cannot conceive, how it is possible, that 
you are in danger of perishing. What! Can I, 
who have clone so much, be in danger of perishing ; 
be a subject of the piiy and not the favor of God ? 
This is the reason, why you cannot believe. Let 
these, who say they cannot believe, place themselves 
upon the lis! of sinners, who have come short of the 
glory of God. Regard yourselves, oh, fellow men! 
as children of wraih ; conceive that the wrath of 
God abides upon you, that the sentence of death is 
denounced upon you, that you deserve to be pun- 
ished with rebellious spirits; and you can then be- 
lieve, that God loves you 50, as to give a ransom for 
your poor, sinful, and guilty souls. This is Scrip- 
tural reasoning. — "For scarcely, for a righteous 
man, will one die ; yet, peradventure, for a good 
man, some would even dare to die. But God com- 
mendeih his love towards us, in that, while we were 
yet sinners, Christ died for us. Greater love, hath 
no man, lhan this, that he lays down Ins life for 
his friend." Your doubts, you must see, all pro- 
ceed upon the supposition, that you are righteous, 



FAl'rH IN THE SON OF GOD. 101 

that you are good men, that you are friends to God, 
and have been so always. The idea of the pity of 
God shames you ; and the gift of his only begotten 
Son, as the proof and the measure of that pity, con- 
founds and bewilders you. If the men, who have 
not been convinced of sin, who have not repented, 
into whose heart the thought has never entered to 
change their habits of life and to become renewed in 
the spirit of their mind, — if they have any notion 
of God, it is, that he loves them, because they are 
worthy of his love ! Being the first and dearest ob- 
jects of their own self love, how can they cherish 
the idea that they are objects of pity? Oh, how 
many self-deceived and deluded creatures are wrap- 
ped up and blind folded in self righteousness ! Too 
good in their own esteem for the pity of God, too 
good to need any means of salvation which that 
pity provides, they are too good to believe in the 
Lord Jesus Christ ! 

But, to desponding souls, on the contrary, these 
tidings of the gift of God's dear Son, seem too good 
to be true. They are disposed to think, that they are 
too unworthy to be subjects even of the pity of the 
Lord, much less of his favor. Humbled and self- 
abased sinners write bitter things against themselves ; 
they are slow of heart to believe themselves, to be 
included among those to whom the promises are of- 
fered. They look only at the dark side, or 
rather, see only themselves and tTieir own unworth- 
iness* and finding no sources of comfort in them- 



102 DISCOURSE FOURTH. 

selves, they become real mourners. In cases of true 
repentance, when the conscience is over-burdened 
with guilt, all hope, all comfort comes from salva- 
tion by grace, through faith. The Mediator is to 
be the Alpha and Omega ; the All in All. Despair- 
ing sinners must be made to hear the love of God 
in Christ Jesus. " Whosoever believeth in him," 
—not excepting the desponding, the dejected crea- 
tures, who have pronounced sentence of condem- 
nation upon themselves ; — " Whosoever believeth," 
— not worketh, not sacrificeth, not seeks to pay a 
redemption price, not merits salvation , but believethj 
trusteth in the merits of the death and resurrection 
of the only begotten Son of God, relieth upon him 
as able to save unto the uttermost, all who come 
unto God through him, — " shall not perish, but 
have everlasting life." Words cannot express the 
sense of unworthiness, under which the heart sinks 
before God, when it is probed and penetrated by 
the all-searching spirit of truth. But in love, in 
pity to a world of sinners, not one of whom can re- 
deem his own soul, or the soul of his brother, God 
gave his Son to bleed and die ; and thus, through 
the veil of his flesh, to open a new and living way 
to himself, for us. Faith is the appropriating prin- 
ciple. It is to the mind, analagous to what mor- 
dants (so called) are to certain coloring matter and 
to cloths. It takes hold of the promise, and unites 
it and the mind. We cannot enjoy or use promises, 
unless we believe them. All promised grace raid 



FAITH IN THE SON OF GOD. 103 

power are lost upon unbelievers, as they cannot be 
forced upon the mind, nor can the mind be forced 
to accept them, while the principle of faith in the 
system or plan of salvation, is rejected. The Scrip- 
ture pronounces, that unbelief, when the testimony 
of God is concerned, makes God a liar. God says, 
—he gave. Unbelief says. — he did not. This is a 
fearful issue for the unbeliever. And were it possible 
for him to receive a benefit, while he denies the 
veracity of the promiser, it would involve strange 
consequences. "If ye believe not, that I am He, 
ye shall die in your sins ; and whither I go, ye can- 
not come." We trust, we have now demonstrated, 
that a religion without faith, could not be rational 
or intellectual. Religion is not an inherent part of 
ourselves, not like our passions and appetites. We 
must be led or guided into religion by the truth, or 
be deceived into it, or be compelled into it. The 
plain and obvious course is, to believe the truth. — 
All use for artifice and force will thus at once be 
superseded This is the divine plan. All things 
are possible to him who believeth, — all obstructions 
are thus removed from the mind, and none exist 
any where else, which come not within the control 
of the promised grace. 

Let us honor the Son, as we honor the Father, 
by believing in him. " Ye believe in God, believe 
also in me." " In my Father's house, there are 
many mansions : if it were not so, I would have 
told you." Did the Father love us? The So:i 



104 r> I S C O U R S E FOURTH. 

also loved us, and gave himself for us, and washed 
us from our sins in his own blood. Let us love him 
also, because he first loved us. Let us honor the 
Son, as we honor the Father, with our gratitude 
and our obedience. 

Faith is said to be imputed for righteousness. — 
For what, saith the scripture? Abraham believed 
God and it was accounted unto him, for righteous- 
ness. The faith was not Abraham, nor righteous- 
ness, in itself; but it was like the colorless mordant 
to the cloth and to the dye. " Now, to him, that 
worketh, is the reward, not reckoned of grace, but 
of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believ- 
eth in him, that justifieth the ungodly , his faith is 
counted for righteousness." The work must be 
be reckoned of debt, or be due, that is, by a rule of 
justice. The debtor owed so much, and has paid 
so much. To believe on him who justifieth the 
ungodly, tranfers or attributes all the justifying 
merit to the object of faith, both from the faith it- 
self and from the believer, and hence, it is reckoned 
of grace. When any thing is said, to receive a re- 
ward of grace, is it not plain, that the term, reward, 
in its proper sense, is neutralized, or that a contra- 
diction in terms must be involved ? An ungodly per- 
son believes in him who justifies the ungodly, that 
is, slaves him from the consequences of his ungodli- 
ness, one of which is condemnation. He is now a 
parcLned -inner, and in the enjoyment of all the 
present blessings of adoption. He knows in whom 



FAITH IN THE SON OF GOD. 105 

be has believed. What is now his estimate of his 
own faith ? Mast it not be, that the reward is reck- 
oned of grace, not of debt ; or that the faith did not 
merit pardon or any of the consequences ? And 
that, if it has pleased God to count it for righteous- 
ness, this is still but a further display of his grace. 
The manner, in which grace and faith are uniform- 
ly coupled or associated together, shows plainly, 
that the text corresponds with these principles, and 
that it is the only begotten Son of God, who merits 
the everlasting life, for every one, that believeth. 
Faith receives gifts. The mind of the believer is 
conscious, that it needs them, not that it deserves 
them. What is presumed to be deserved, is claim- 
ed not accepted, as a gift. 
Cincinnati, January, 1838. 



DISCOURSE FIFTH 

GOSPEL REPENTANCE. 



Him hath God exalted with his own right hand, to be a Prince 
and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of 
sins. 

Jlcts v. 31. 

The Lord Jesus Christ commanded his Apostles 
to begin their ministry, by preaching repentance, 
not in the loose and general acceptation of the word, 
but the repentance which he would give. The 
matters or subjects of the gospel may have names, 
in certain instances, in common with other matters 
or subjects ; and yet, the former may differ from 
the latter, in several points, and also in origin. — 
Saviour, for instance, among the Greeks, was a 
name or title common to their patriotic heroes who 
defended or delivered their country; but it is ap- 
plied to the Messiah, as the Saviour from sin. The 
making of a new nomenclature is not only difficult, 
bnt it is still more difficult to make the people un- 
derstand it, when it is made. It is found, that 
when a system of new names is introduced into a 
science, it gives rise to two languages, the one of 
the learned, the other of the unlearned. Such a 
consequence, in the beginning of the Christian 
church, would have been attended with great in- 



GOSFEL REPENTANCE. 107 

convenience. It was much easier to qualify the 
meaning of old terms. There was repentance before • 
Christ came, and there was repentance after he 
came which he did not give ; but that which he 
did give, after he was exalted, had resemblance 
enough to the others, to authorize the common 
name. The Greek word Mat&voia, which is 
translated by, repentance, is compounded of the 
preposition, Msrs, after, which in composition, 
means change, and the substantive Noo?, thought, 
mind, so that the proper signification of the term is, 
change of mind, after -thought. The Latin trans- 
lation of the original is Resipisckre to return tc a 
right understanding, to come to one's senses again ; 
and also, Pcemtere to cause remorse or repent- 
ance. Hence Pcenitet it repents, grieves, vexes 
or troubles, and Pgenitentia repentanee or after- 
sorrow. We derive our English word, repentance, 
from the Latin one ; and the word, penance, is also 
derived from the Latin. Hence, it has become a 
usage, to call one who repents, a penitent; and 
hence also, the idea or opinion of many persons, 
that repentance means punishment, from the Latin 
noun Pcena, penalty, as though repentance was a 
penalty. And to carry out the idea, Ave find the 
term used, to do penance, that is, to punish one's 
self. There are spiritual instructors and guides 
who teach and direct persons, to repent in this 
sense, that is to do penance ; and when they have 
done the penance they are directed to do, and make 



108 DISCOtlE^E FIFTH. 

known the facts to the guides or directors of their 
consciences, their pardon is confirmed. Is it not 
evident that this is not the sense nor the substance 
of the repentance, which is given by the Lord Jesus 
Christ? The repentance, which he gives, is not 
penalty or punishment ; nor does he direct sinners 
to punish themselves, with a view to obtain the par- 
don or the forgiveness of their sins. He gives change 
of mind, after-mind or after- thought, reflection or 
power to reflect upon the causes, the nature, and 
the effects of sin, not as a punishment for sin but 
to prepare the mind to receive its forgiveness. Now, 
the idea of meriting pardon or forgiveness of sins, 
comes from the belief of the merit of self-inflicted 
punishment. And, almost all the confusion of lan- 
guage in books and in pulpits, about meriting sal- 
vation, originated in the mistaken noticn about re- 
pentance meaning the same, as penalty, or punish- 
ment self -inflicted. But the repentance which 
Jesus Christ gives, is called, by way of distinction, 
Evangelical Repentance, and also, the Grace of Re- 
pentance. So far is it, from being Poena or pen- 
alty, that it is an evidence and a token or proof of 
the pity of God, showing that he is not willing that 
we should perish. Repentance, then, is not given 
as an expression of the wrath, but of the compassion 
of God. Let not the sinner, therefore, when he 
cries, — God be merciful to me a sinner ! — conceive 
that he is making an atonement for his sins, by his 
sorrows for them. 



GOSPEL REPENTANCE. 109 

These definitions and remarks prepare the way 
for the discussion of two disputed points. First, — 
is repentance a gift or grace of God? Secondly, — 
how is it given ? With or without means ? — Or in 
another form, is this grace of repentance resistible 
or irresistible ? A great deal has been written about 
the power of men to repent. Two great parties 
take different sides upon the subject. It becomes 
necessary, therefore, to weigh well the meaning and 
bearing of all the terms and arguments. To say 
that this Exalted Prince gives repentance, would 
call forth from certain persons an enquiry, — wheth- 
er it is meant that men cannot repent, and if so, 
how they are to blame if they do not repent? To 
say that men can repent if they will, on the other 
side, would call forth she enquiry, — whether it be 
meant that men can save themselves ? It is desir- 
able, if possible, so to speak on these points as to 
avoid occasions of these kinds. To conceive, that 
God does a thing immediately or without means, or 
irresistibly, or that grace acts irresistibly, does not 
seem to us to differ from a miracle. A miracle, as 
we conceive, is an immediate act or an act done 
without means, and irresistible. Jesus Christ has 
power to work miracles, and of course to give re- 
pentance miraculously ; in other words, the Spirit 
of God may produce repentance without means or 
irresistibly. We do not see how the possibility of 
irresistible grace, or of the immediate operations of 
the Spirit of God upon the human heart, can be de- 
10 



110 DISCOURSE FIFTH. 

nied without denying miracles. But, thel question 
of fact is different. To resolve it, the evidences 
must be facts. Was this man awakened, was he 
convinced of sin and brought to true repentance by 
the immediate operations of the spirit of God, or irre- 
sistibly, or without any means? The question is 
not now a question of possibility, but of fact. And 
of the instances of repentance which pass under ex- 
amination, will not the greater proportion of them 
be found to have been effected by means, and so, 
of course, not to have been miraculous? We do 
not associate miracles and means in our minds; but 
hold, that where the one begins the other ends. If 
repentance is given mediately, — or by and through 
means, it may be conceived to be given resistibly ; 
but it may be conceived of as a gift, whether it be 
given miraculously or by means, whether resistibly 
or irresistibly, for in either case, the gift-principle is 
not affected any more than it is by the refusal to 
accept or by the throwing away of the thing given. 
We may believe in miraculous repentances, but the 
number of them who shall determine ? Now, if it 
could be proved, that they are and must be all mi- 
raculous, must not means be excluded altogether ? 
The same consequences must follow, if it shall be 
assumed that all repentance is given irresistibly. 

There is one fact, however, in which it should 
seem, that there can be but little difference of opin 
ion among those who have means of observation ? 
namely, that where the gospel means of repentance 



GOSPEL REPENTANCE. HI 

are not to be found, there are few, if any examples 
of Gospel B,epentance. And yet, if repentance 
be all and always miraculous and irresistible, can 
any sufficient reason be given, why it should not be as 
common, where there are no means as where there 
are means ? Means were used, to give repentance to 
the Jews. The repentance of that blasphemous and 
injurious persecutor, Saul of Tarsus, can hardly be 
considered as wholly effected by irresistible grace, or 
the immediate agency of the Spirit of God alone. " I 
was not," he afterwards said, " disobedient to the hea- 
venly vision. " Does he not seem to imply the possi- 
bility of such disobedience ? Men, who follow the 
impulses of their passions and prejudices and their 
appetites, are thoughtless creatures save in matters 
and things pertaining to them. By indulging in 
habits of excess, they become desperately averse 
from repentance. The power of reflection is almost 
obliterated from their minds. They sink down into 
an earthly, sensual and devilish state, and give 
themselves up to despair of any thing greater or 
better. Those countries, which have sunk under 
their own vicious excesses, have generally sunk into 
barbarism. Society becomes unable to redeem it- 
self, from the effects of social depravity. This im- 
becility indicates, that repentance is not a natural 
consequence of sin, or a result of any necessary re- 
action ; but that the pronencss of individual and 
social bodies in vice is from bad to worse. The 
Jewish people were filling up the measure of their 



112 DISCOURSE FIFTH. 

depravity. Their Priesthood was hastening to its 
crisis; but before the dissolution of the old system, 
the foundation of the new one was laid. Christian 
churches were organized and Christianity was car- 
ried into effect, without any retaliation upon the 
persecuting Sanhedrim, or without interrupting the 
authority of the Proconsuls of the Province. The 
crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and the Pente- 
cost gave no cause of alarm to the Emperors. The 
Roman historians indicate enough to prove, that a 
a war of extermination against the Jew T s would 
have followed from their measures, if Christianity 
had not existed. The disciples of Jesus are not 
once mentioned among the insurgents ; their Mas- 
ter had indeed warned them carefully not to in- 
volve themselves in the fatal conflict, but to escape 
from the devoted city. 

Thus, the Prince, whose kingdom w T as not of 
this world,- — was neither Jewish nor Roman, was pre- 
paring the way to give repentance ; while the thoughts 
and designs of wretched men were bent on wars the 
most bloody and destructive. He taught his ministers 
to inculcate lessons of reflection, and to make foolish 
minds wise ones. Oh , that men were wise ! Oh , that 
they would consider their latter end ! Moses, with 
all his wishes, could not give the change of mind 
or after-thought. This was the gift of Him by 
whom came grace and truth, of the Prince of Life, 
the Exalted to the right hand of Majesty on High. 
All the sayings, the maxims, the precepts, and the 



GOSPEL REPENTANCE. 113 

doctrines of the Lord Jesus were calculated as so 
many means, to produce this after-thought, this re- 
flection or repentance unto life. But teaching alone 
cannot give it ; the Spirit of Grace must co-operate 
with the means. The Apostles preached repent- 
ance, so as to make their preaching the means of 
it ; they directed their discourses to this end, to fur- 
nish matter for reflection and motives to induce 
the mind to review the past and its consequences ; 
and they preached with the Holy Ghost sent down 
from Heaven. Grace carried truth to the hearts of 
their hearers. The author and finisher of faith 
gave repentance, gave the humble and the contrite 
heart which trembled at the word of the Lord. 

The common definition of repentance is, to be 
sorry for sin and to- forsake it. But, the possibility 
of becoming sorry for that which we love, has not 
it seems been fully proved. Sin must be hated, to 
become a cause of Borrow. Now, this Exalted 
Prince gives a hatred for sin. How unlovely, how 
hateful is sin made to appear by the holy, harm- 
less, and undefiled Prince and Saviour! The con- 
verging and steady light which is directed from 
every part of the New Testament upon sin, upon 
the sinful heart, shows its whole deformity. "Sin, 
by the commandment, becomes exceeding sinful," 
— for it sets the commandment at defiance. Re- 
pentance is an agitated, troubled, and conflicting 
state. " Oh ! wretched man, that I am, who shall 
deliver me from the body of this deatn?" It is, as 
10* 



114 DISCOURSE FIFTH. 

a Prince, that Jesus gives repentance. He reigns 
he has all power in heaven and on earth. " I have 
set my king upon my holy hill, Zion. I will de- 
clare the decree. Thou art my Son ; this day have 
I begotten thee. Be wise, therefore; kiss the Son, 
lest he be angry with thee, and thou perish from 
the way." There is power and authority and 
majesty in this giver of repentance. " The Father 
hath committed all judgement unto the Son ; that 
all men might honor the son, as they honor the 
Father." Behold! how the Apostle to the Gen- 
tiles sets forth this matter. "But now he command- 
eth all men every where to repent, because he hath 
appointed a day, in which he will judge the world 
in righteousness, by this man whom he hath or- 
dained; whereof, he hath given assurance to all 
men, in that he hath raised him from the dead." — 
" We must all stand before the judgment seat of 
Christ." "And I saw the dead, both small and 
great, stand before God !" He, who gives the 
awful subjects of death, judgment, and eternity, 
gives the elements of the causes of repentance to 
sinners against their own souls; to sinners, who 
have treasured up wrath against the day of wrath, 
and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God. 
There is not a principle which appertains to re 
pentance, which is not given in the Word, or by the 
Spirit of the Lord, the Prince and Saviour. 

But, a definition of experience in the repenting 
state is rendered difficult and almost impracticable, 



GOSPEL REPENTANCE. 115 

b}^ associations between the feelings and the differ- 
ent and varying theories. Those persons, who are 
taught to regard repentance as self-punishment and 
good works as vicarious and meritorious, experience 
emotions and sentiments in conformity to their 
opinions, Every variation in men's creeds will 
cause some variation in their experience. Certain 
persons assure us from their own experience, that 
there is a feeling of enmity and hatred against God, 
so strong as to dispose the mind to dethrone him, 
if it were possible. Of their sincerity in this belief, 
there need be no doubt. The only question is, 
whether this kind and degree of feeling is necessary 
o true repentance in every man. We think that 
it is not; but that it proceeds from a peculiar sys- 
tem of doctrine. Feelings conform to the previous 
belief, more readily perhaps than the belief does to 
the previous feelings. Most of the religious forms 
and ceremonies and the degrees of importance at- 
tached to them will have an influence upon the 
feelings, in this transition state, if repentance may 
be so called. And it is possible, that some allow- 
ance should be made in several of the most remark- 
able examples, which are mentioned in times of 
persecution. In these dark and cruel periods it is 
very difficult to keep the mind balanced and steady. 
Legal repentance, as it is called, is apt to be regard- 
ed as exceptionable, as too formal and defective, 
in a state of deep feeling. Those persons, who pay 
great attention to the feelings and lay the chief 



116 DISCOURSE FIFTH. 

stress upon them, are inclined to allegorize their in- 
ward emotions. They sometimes compare repent- 
ance to the travels of the children of Israel through 
the deserts of Arabia, and sometimes to the opening 
of the seals in the revelations and to other figurative 
representations. We may make a statement of those 
points which seem to be common to all, or to which 
there are fewest known exceptions; — -1. Fear. 2. 
Shame. 3. A sense of ingratitude. 4. Painful 
feelings of humility and unworthiness. 5. All 
mingled with a greater or less degree of guilt or 
self-condemnation, or sense of divine displeasure. — 
Others add despair, but this though it often obtains 
for a time seems to be accidental, depending in 
part upon want of information or wrong instruction. 
The fear of hell or future punishment need not 
strongly or constantly predominate. A willingness 
to be damned, as some speak, and on which they 
strongty insist, is rather a deduction from assumed 
principles than a necessary feeling. But, a desire 
of salvation answerable to the desirableness of sal- 
vation, we should suppose to be consequential. — 
How can the mind prevent a desire for what is 
known as desirable? And religion can only be 
known as desirable. 

The duties of repentance are sufficiently marked 
by the Prophet Isaiah. " Let the wicked man for- 
sake his way , and the unrighteous man his thoughts ; 
and let him return unto the Lord, and unto our 
God, and he will abundantly pardon." " Cease 



GOSPEL REPENTANCE. 117 

to do evil, and learn to do well." The strange 
opinion, that it is wicked for a repenting sinner to 
pray or use the means of grace, is gratuitous ; for 
the sinner, who is forbidden to use religious means 
and forms, if he is obstinately and presumptuously 
bent on sinning, becomes presumptuous and acts the 
hypocrite. 

To give repentance, is to give the command to 
repent. Neither the authority of the law or the 
prophets would have been sufficient to authorize 
a Gospel Repentance. " The times of this igno- 
rance God winked at ; but now commandeth all 
men, every where, to repent." It is to give the 
means also, for the giving of the means is the ren- 
dering of the end possible ; and finally, it is to give 
the grace of repentance. The spirit of God con- 
vinces of sin ; it is a light that makes ignorance, er- 
ror, and evil manifest, for whatsoever maketh mani- 
fest is light. The Prince and the Saviour gives the 
command to repent ; he commissioned his Apostles 
to go out and preach repentance in his name 
among all nations. He gives the promise to those 
who obey the command, and the threatening to 
those who disobey the command. 

As a Prince, he gives repentance ; as a Saviour, 
he forgives sins. Sinners do not repent of their 
sins because, they love them ; and when they do 
repent they do not merit pardon. Hence, the two- 
fold office and character of the Messiah ; hence, his 
Rouble gifts or grace to answer grace, 



118 DISCOURSE FIFTH. 

Saviour and Prince of peace, 

The double grace bestow ; 
Unloose the bands oi' wickedness, 

And let the captive go. 
Grant me my sins to feel, 

And then the load remove ; 
Trouble, and wash the troubled heart 

In the atoning blood ; 
Wound and pour in my wounds to heal, 

The balm of pardoning love. 

When the Pharisees asked, — " Who can forgive sins 
but God?"— Jesus answered,— " That ye may know 
that the Son of Man hath power on earth to for- 
give sins, I say to the sick, — take up thy bed and 
walk." So he wrought a miracle to convince them 
that he had power on earth to forgive sins. " His 
name shall be called Jesus, (Saviour) for he shall 
save his people fiom their sins ;" but he could not 
do this unless he pardoned their sins, and he could 
not have pardoned their sins, without meriting their 
pardon. He gives the forgiveness \ he has the 
power, the right, and the means to give. God has 
exalted him with his own right hand. Was he 
then humbled? Yes, he humbled himself and 
became obedient unto death, even the death of the 
cross. " Now that he ascended, what is it but that 
he descended first into the lower parts of this earth ? 
He that descended is the same, also, that ascended 
up far above all heavens. Wherefore , God al so high- 
ly exalted him and gave him a name above every 
name." The great mediatorial work was confided 



GOSPEL REPENTANCE. 119 

to him. He is the dispenser of pardon, holiness, 
and heaven. The resurrection and the ascensioo 
of the Saviour into heaven, give the demonstration 
of the redeeming merit of his death. Justice or 
moral law interposed ; it stood in opposition to par- 
don. It makes no provision for pardon. Christ 
died for our sins. He bears the marks of five 
bleeding wounds, by which he poured out his soul 
unto death. 

It is evident, that the forgiveness of sins was the 
point at issue between the Sanhedrim and the 
Apostles. That the Messiah should be the giver of 
pardon, was the new doctrine, the strange thing, to 
the ears of the teachers of the sacrificial law. It 
was in reference to this, that the cross became a 
stumbling block. The Messiah was not expected 
by these teachers- of the law, as the forgiver of sins. 
The sacrificial provision under the law, they con- 
sidered as all-sufficient for the pardon of sin ; and 
they held these sacrifices, not as types or shadows 
of a greater and more perfect sacrifice, but as un- 
changeable as the moral law itself. Hence, the 
deep interest of the priests and especially the high 
priests, the sons of Aaron, who had so long presided 
over the altar. For the Messiah, being of the house 
of David, was of course of the tribe of Judah ; it 
must follow therefore, if the forgiveness of sins is 
to be in the Messiah, under his kingdom the priest- 
hood must pass out of the tribe of Levi and the 
high priesthood out of the house of Aaron. This 



120 DISCOURSE FIFTH. 

whole subject is fully argued in the Epistle to the 
Hebrews, where it is shown that the Priesthood of 
Christ is after the order of Melchisedec, and not 
after that of Aaron ; the former being immortal, and 
the latter mortal. And besides the Aaronical Priest- 
hood recognised its own sinfulness, having first to 
offer sacrifices for its own sins ; but the priesthood 
of the order of Melchisedec is holy, harmless, and 
undefiled, separate from sinners. But, though a 
Benjamite could reason thus conclusively and so 
illustrate the book of Psalms, the house of Aaron 
had too great a personal interest to be convinced. 
The Apostles, however, viewed the subject not 
merely in reference to the tribes of Israel, but to 
the whole world. " He is the propitiation, not for 
our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world." 

Jesus, our great high priest, 

Hath full atonement made ! 

The writers of the New Testament were evi- 
dently most deeply impressed with the vastness of 
the subject of the forgiveness of sins, and with the 
m aj esty and glory of Him whose gift it is. The work 
was too great, too important to be confided to men or 
to angels. It was committed to the only begotten 
Son of God. He alone has power on earth to for- 
give sins. B nt how does he forgive them ? C cndhion- 
ally or unconditionally? To this question the 
Scriptures give one, and but one answer, namely, 
conditionally. The condition is faith — faith in the 



GOSPEL REPENTANCE. 121 

the giver himself. He forgives the sins of those 
who believe in him, believe that he can and will 
forgive their sins. Unbelievers have no forgive- 
ness. They are condemned already. The wrath 
of God abideth upon them. Those who have 
heard and known and believe not, are condemned 
because they believe not. Men are justified by 
faith, and not by works ; but the faith which justi- 
fies is an obedient faith among all nations : it works 
by love, but the obedience or love is the consequence 
not the cause of pardoned sin. When the repent- 
ing sinner asks, — what shall I do to be saved ? — if 
he means what work, what act of obedience, what 
command or precept shall I obey ; the scriptural 
answer is, — none, not one, — but believe, trust, con- 
fide in Him who is able to save to the uttermost. 
Faith, as a condition of the forgiveness of sins, is 
not only a principle of obedience ; it is also the 
ground of assurance, — " to give the knowledge of 
salvation through the redemption of sins. " Works 
or obedience must always, in this world, be an im- 
perfect evidence of the state of forgiveness, for 
works are always in the process of doing ; not like 
one act faith, which is sufficiently complete in itself 
to enable the believer to have the witness that he 
is accepted in the beloved. Mere isolated pardon, 
as experience proves, answers not a practical pur- 
pose and leaves not future obedience to the laws. 
The heart must be laid under an obligation of gra- 
titude to the forgivcr, and he must become an ob- 
11 



122 DISCOURSE FIFTH. 

ject of reverence and love. In civil governments 
the pardoning power involves the offender only, 
(if one may so speak) in a negative relation. It 
does nothing for the criminal vicariously ; it brings 
him under no personal obligation. The criminal 
may not believe nor know, in whom he has be- 
lieved. The gospel plan bears but few marks of 
resemblance to the legal or political systems of gov- 
ernment. Their beginnings are essentially different. 
The latter assume or suppose the subjects or mem- 
bers of the community to be innocent or above all 
blame, and only provide a pardoning power for 
special cases or conditions of future offenders, but 
never suppose it possible, that the whole commu- 
nity may become obnoxious to the sentence of the 
laws. The gospel, on the contrary, sets out upon 
the view and declaration of the guilt of all. It re- 
gards, it treats all the world as guilty before God. 
It begins without an innocent subject. Its first 
proselytes, its first disciples, the members of the 
primitive church, were sinners and received the for- 
giveness of their sins through faith. This fact is 
demonstrated in the gospel. " What then," says 
the Apostle, " are we better than the Gentiles ? No; 
in no wise, for we have before proved that all were 
under sin." A holy church was, and is to be made 
out of an unholy world. Sinners are to be par- 
doned and sanctified ; and made meet for the inhe- 
ritance of the saints in light, by grace- through faith 
in Christ. 



GOSPEL REPENTANCE. 123 

Sinner? then, should know or have assurance of 
their forgiveness ; they should have the witness in 
themselves, or the Spirit of Adoption bearing wit- 
ness with their spirits, that they are the children of 
God. These particular objects of the gospel must, 
fail without faith. Not a step can be taken in this 
experience, without a settled confidence ; and with* 
out this confidence, there can be no steady obedience. 
Works done for justification, whether, as it is affirm- 
ed, they have the nature of sin in them or not, can- 
not have the assurance producing nature in them. 
They cannot generate a knowledge of salvation, 
through the remission of sins ; they cannot authorize 
their performers to say, that they know experimen- 
tally in whom they have believed, nor can they 
produce love and gratitude for events which follow 
after them. Infidels allow themselves to talk of the 
licentious tendency of the doctrines of grace and 
faith, while they do no good works and are as in- 
attentive to morality as they are to piety. Is it 
then, for men, all of whom the gospel concludes 
under sin, to sit in judgement upon the consequences 
of that gospel ? Even Christians are too apt to for- 
get the rock from whence they were hewn, and the 
hole of the pit from whence they were digged, and 
to indulge in language better suited to umpires and 
judges than to dependant creatures, who have no- 
thing save what they have received. St. Paul's 
words are suited for all mouths, and should be re- 
sponded to by every heart. " When we were with- 



124 DISCOURSE FIFTH. 

out strength, in due time, Christ died for the un- 
godly." 

All powerful Prince and Saviour, exalted with and 
and to the right hand of God, how full of grace and 
truth must he be, to take sinners out of the horrible 
pit and the miry cla}^ by giving them repentance 
and the forgiveness of sins! The conquerors of 
the world give no repentance. They cannot sus- 
pend the love of sin. They cannot make men 
sorry for what they love. The changes of the dy- 
nasties of nations are found to do but little more 
than to modify their vices. The leaders of victori- 
ous armies who have retraced in blood each others 
steps over the ancient continents, — how little of af- 
ter-thought have these given, how little remains of 
the nations they commanded or conquered ! Their 
means - were not rational, moral, or evangelical. 
Devoid of reflection themselves, how could they 
promote it in the minds of others? Blind to their 
own folly and madness, they led on armies as blind 
as themselves, and left the darkness and the sha- 
dows of religious death behind them. The death 
working sorrows of this world followed thick in their 
train ; but godly sorrow, the humble and contrite 
heart, were not there. Hard hearts and blind 
minds and guilty consciences are the misery and 
the ruin of nations. Hail Prince and Saviour ! Send 
down from thy exalted throne the soul convert- 
ing gifts ! Save the nations by grace ! 



GOSPEL REPENTANCE. 125 

Give us, ourselves and thee to know ; 

In this, our gracious day ; 
Repentance unto lii'e bestow. 

And take our sins away ! 

What now are the hopes of the ministry and the 
church ? What their prospects, in behalf of a be 
nighted and a guilty world ? And what their mo- 
tives to pei severe ? What, but the gifts of their 
Prince aud Saviour ? The residue of the Spirit is 
with him. His ear is not heavy that he cannot 
hear. His arm is not shortened that he cannot 
save. Neither repentance nor the forgiveness of 
sins need be given up, neither in doctrine nor in 
experience, neither in theory nor in practice. No 
substitute can be found for them. A church, con- 
stituted so as to exclude these gifts, must prove spi- 
ritually poor indeed. " Despisest thou, 5 ' says the 
Scripture, " the riches of his goodness and forbear- 
ance and long suffering not knowing that the 
goodness of God leadeth thee to repeniance ? But, 
after thy hardness and impenitence of heart, treasu- 
rest up to thyself wrath, against the day of wrath 
and the revelation of the. righteous judgement of 
God, who will render to every man according to his 
deeds?" We see here how repentance is a gift. 
The riches of his goodness and forbearance and 
long-suffering are summed up, as the goodness of 
God, and lead to repentance. But a hard heart 
and an impenitent mind may despise and reject 
and resist all. We earnestly urge this, important 
11* 



126 DISCOURSE FIFTH. 

passage, as a corrective to the fatal tendency to re- 
ject the counsel of God. Oh ! sinners, you sfiould 
know, that the grace of the gospel, here called the 
riches of his goodness, is intended to soften and to 
melt this heart, to render it lowly and contrite, and 
to cause thee to weep and tremble at the awful word 
of the Lord, and the great and dreadful day of 
judgement which it reveals ! You should not on- 
ly know but deeply consider that it is because the 
compassion of the Lord has not failed, you are not 
consumed ; that you do not live, because you merit 
life or deserve to live, but because God is waiting to 
be gracious. Oh! thoughtless, inconsiderate, pre- 
sumptions creatures, — know you not, that the good- 
ness of God ; that times and seasons of grace, if final- 
ly despised, will all be brought into judgement as 
so many causes of condemnation ? What a thought! 
Treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath, 
converting riches of goodness, the very goodness of 
God itself, into sentence of condemnation ! 

He comes , he comes, the judge severe ! 

The day of repentance and forgiveness is past. 
The day of judgement is come. Will the sinner 
now dare to plead that the gift of repentance was 
never offered to him — never slighted by him ? Will 
he say no time was given him to repent ? The re- 
cords of mercy and grace, the records of time, shall 
determine. The leader was there, the follower on- 
ly was wanting. The gift did not fail 7 bnt the re- 



GOSPEL REPENTANCE 127 

ceiver. " I gave her space to repent, and she re 
pented not." There are persons, who are known 
to despise nothing so much as the gospel "means of 
repentance. Promises and threatenings, persuadings 
and warnings, only serve to call forth their resent- 
ment and contempt. On whatever part they are 
smitten, they will revolt more .and more. Of all 
the gifts of God, no one should be prized more high- 
ly than repentance. And of all sins, what one can 
involve deeper guilt .than that of despising for a 
life-time, all the calls and means and all the grace 
of repentance, and all the opportunities for it } 
Cincinnati, January, 1838. 



DISCOURSE SIXTH 

THE LAW OF FAITH. 



Whore is boasting then ? It is excluded. By what law ? Of 
works ? Nay ; but by the law of faith. Therefore, we conclude, that 
a man is justified by faith, without the deeds of the law. Is be the 
God of the Jews only ? Is he not also of the Gentiles ? Yes, of the 
Gentiles also : seeing 1 that it is one God, who shall justify the cir- 
cumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through faith. Do we, 
then, make void the law through faith ? God forbid v yea, we es- 
tablish the law. 

Romans iii. 27 — 31. 

We have here, m express words, the Law of 
Faith. The fact, that there is such a law, must 
have been inferred if it had not been expressed. 
Nothing in a religious system which claims to have 
God for its author, can be supposed to be subject to 
chances or accidents. Causes must be operative, 
and they must operate uniformly or react. In 
moral or political laws, there must be an executive 
to bring them to act in and upon society. But the 
law of nature, so called, may operate upon indivi- 
duals, and as all society is made up of individuals, a 
whole society may become affected, without an 
executive influence or by natural consequences. 
Many moral and political laws are not in them- 
selves active principles, and so may remain inert 
in the law book or codes ; but many of the natural 
laws are active principles and depend upon no con- 
ventional arrangements. Heat, for instance, is an 



THE LAW OF FAITH. 129 

active principle, and has its laws of action upon 
living" and dead bodies. In regard to the former, 
it may preserve or destroy life. Now, the truth of 
the gospel, in some instances, operate in conformity 
to or analagous to the laws of nature ; individual or 
conventional will has little or no influence over 
their result. So, when they are said to be a savor 
of life unto life, or a savor of death unto death, we 
see not only the uniformity of the law, but the ac- 
celeration. In the disobedient they produce con- 
demnation always and in all degrees. 

Faith in the gospel is, what logicians call, a 
sine qua non, or a cause without which , the effect 
will not come to pass ; though it may not be capa- 
ble of producing an effect by itself. The law is 
expressed thus : — He that believeth shall be saved, 
and he that believeth not shall be damned. But, 
it amounts not to a law, to say, — he that believeth 
shall be saved, and he shall be saved .whether he 
believes or not. The natural law of cause and ef- . 
feet would not be evident ; nor, would it express 
any conventional law or law depending upon the 
will of the lawgiver. The reasons of laws, as we 
take it, are not to be sought for or to be found, in 
mere volition, but where there is an actual or real 
relation of cause and effect, they may be sought 
for ; and in general, this relation may be presumed 
upon, when the subject is stated negatively and po- 
sitively or reversely. It might, for instance, be 
made a question, how those might stand affected 



130 DISCOURSE SIXTH. 

who are in a neutral condition, who are neither be- 
lievers nor unbelievers? And the inquiry might 
be pursued, to ascertain whether, where the gospel 
is fully preached and heard there can be any neu- 
tral state of mind between believing and unbeliev- 
ing ? We are told, indeed, of those who are nei- 
ther cold nor hot, but this relates to degrees for 
they are said to be luke-warm. The presumption, 
it should seem, is in favor of no neutrality of mind 
between believing and not believing ; we mean not 
that there are no intermediate doubts, but a balance 
with no inclination. We regard the law of faith then 
as coming under or belonging to the class of laws of 
causes and effects. So that, if no reasons for it are 
given, they may be sought for and found. But 
here, let us not be misunderstood. We conceive of 
positive or absolute laws, or expression of the divine 
will, in contradistinction to laws of cause and ef- 
fect not as in any way involving the question of 
, the sovereignty of divine will in the latter case. 

But to proceed. It is a law of appetite, that the 
neglect of it must end in starvation, and the abuse 
of it in disease. The animal body has its laws of 
existence and they can be neither deceived nor 
bribed ; they must be obeyed or they will punish. 
There is a law of sleep and a law of labor. Woe 
to their transgressors ! Social laws maybe artificial, 
and in so far as they are so, they may be artificially 
enforced. The washing of hands was artificial, not 
moral nor natural ; and as no immediate or direct 



THE LAW OF FAITH. 131 

injury could follow from a neglect of the law or a 
deviation from it, so there could be no punishment 
except by positive or conventional enactment. Not 
so with the lav/ of industry ; laziness, the violation 
of the law, will clothe a man with rags. The law, 
in this case, becomes as it were its own executioner. 
Examples like these, partially observed or illy un- 
derstood, seem to have given rise to the saying, 
that every man is the arbiter of his own fortune ; 
instead of saying, that there are laws, which reward 
those who observe them, and punish those who vio- 
late them even in this world. The sun Iras its 
laws, and it matters not what the characters of men 
may be in other respects, if they trangress these 
laws they will be punished. " The night will 
come when no man can work." The law of faith 
too must be obeyed, or it will punish its transgres- 
sors. It too has a sword, which it beareth not in 
vain. The Messiah, when illustrating the prophe- 
cy which represents him as the stone which is the 
head of the corner, added, — " Whosoever falleth 
upon this stone shall be broken, and on whomsoever 
it shall fall, it shall grind him to powder." By 
what law is the Saviour to govern ? By what law 
is his people to be governed ? Law, indeed ! ex- 
claims one. Does not the Scripture affirm that 
Christians are not under law but under grace? 
But there is a law of faith, even under grace. It is 
impossible upon Scriptural principles or by Scriptu- 
ral authority, in religious experience, to separate 



132 DISCOURSE SIXTH, 

faitli from grace. Gracious souls are believing- 
sOuls. " He that belie v 7 eth not, is condemned al- 
ready." The law of faith is, that the unbeliever 
shall not approach the threshhold of salvation. 
Where there is no faith or confidence, if any thing- 
is done in a way of government, it must be done by 
authority or coercion. Grace alone cannot govern. 
Government implies two parties, the governor and 
the governed ; but if the latter becomes refractory 
or disobedient, is grace or favor still to be displa}^ed ? 
A moment's reflection must convince any one that 
this course would be preposterous. 

The text concludes, that a man is justified by 
faith. Well, let it be supposed that he makes ship- 
wrecks of the faith, is there any law in this case ? 
If so, one might conceive before hand, that it would 
be a law of consistency. The law is, that the just 
shall live by faith, and if any man draw back, — 
" My soul," saith God, " shall have no pleasure in 
him." Here is the true and genuine spirit of law. 
The governor is not equally pleased with opposites 7 
nor indifferent to negligence. The believer and he 
who draws back from the faith, do not continue in 
the same relative condition ; the latter ceases to be 
justified by the faith from which he draws back. 
To whomever God saith, — " my soul shall have 
no pleasure, in him," — in him the life of faith be- 
gins to recede. Do we then, make void the law, 
the moral law in fact, or the principle of law through 
faith ? " God forbid ; yea we establish the law." 



THE LAW OF FAITH. 133 

The law of faith and the moral law operate upon 
the same principles, and are intended to secure the 
same ends. The law of faith discrimates the be- 
liever from the unbeliever ; it saves the former and 
condemns the latter. So, likewise, the moral law 
will not hold him guiltless who transgresses it. 
There is no more impunity in the one case, than 
in the other ; for if unbelief was not condemned, if 
one event happened to the believer and to him who 
believeth not* there would be no law operation, — ■ 
the principle of law would be made void. The 
ends are the same. The end of the moral law is 
holiness, and the end of the law of faith is holiness. 
Why then, cannot men be saved by the moral 
law, as well as by the law of faith ? The reason is, 
they have transgressed the moral law, or are want- 
ing in moral integrity. Innocent men with holy 
natures" 5 could be saved by the moral law, if they 
continued to keep it. But moral law cannot justi- 
fy or pardon its transgressors and take them again 
into favor. There is no immediate and direct way 
to pass from disobedience to obedience, as there is 
from obedience to disobedience. The two processes 
are not like that of moving backwards and forwards 
on a plane, but like that of moving up and down a 
hill, or up and down a stream, or rather, like fall- 
ing from a height and attempting to regain it. 
The law of faith differs essentially from the moral 
law, in having a mediate object which the latter 
has not. The moral law stands by itself, and can 
12 



134 D I 9 C'O U R S E SIXTH, 

only operate immediately. Faith has a person or 
thing to lean or rest upon objectively. To faith 
or the act of believing, neither guilt nor immoral 
disposition or nature can be a preventive. Faith 
does not presuppose innocency and spotless purity 
of nature. Believers in the gospel are recognised 
in the gospel as believing sinners, that is, as per- 
sons who, before they believed, stood in the rela- 
tion to God as transgressors of his moral law, and 
consequently as having' lost their innocence and 
moral integrity. But innocent men with holy na- 
tures stand immediately related to God; there is no 
mediator between God and them. It is, when men 
become guilty before God, and sinful propensities 
or desires are involuntary and uncontrollable by the 
will, — that all intercourse with him must be through 
a mediator, who is an object of faith. Those who 
reject all ideas of original sin, and hold that men 
are born with a sinless nature, do not seem to give 
themselves much pains to examine into the conse- 
quences of thus coming into the world with an in- 
nocent nature and without a mediator. But should 
not the supposition of such a nature, for any length 
of time or for a whole life, escaping from sin and 
all sinful desires, be examined with great care? 
Can any proposition involve more interesting re- 
sults? Supposing a crisis of temptation and evil 
desires and consequent evil actions to come to pass, 
a very possible case surely, hypothesis to the con- 
trary notwithstanding, what then is to be done 



THE LAW OF FA1TI, 135 

without a mediator ? Is one to be provided in every 
case after it occurs, or when he is needed? Bat 
temptations to sin and sinful desires and sinful 
practices do become epidemic, — must there be then 
a remedy for all, or must all perish ? Moral law 
was made for innocent men with holy natures. 
The law of faith was made for guilty men with 
unhol y natures. B lit holiness is the final obj ect and 
end of both — the one to preserve and the other tore- 
store. The law of faith, then, is founded on a me- 
diator, it supposes the necessity of a mediator, and 
that he must be provided on the part of the offended 
God. It does not proceed upon mere accidents'. 
All are presupposed to be sinners, and a mediator is 
provided for all. u The love of Christ constraineth 
us, because we thus judge, that if one died for all, 
then were all dead, and they that live should not 
henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him who 
died for them." The Lord Jesus Christ, as an 
object of faith, is provided for all. No man is au- 
thorized by the word of God to doubt whether he 
has a mediator, any more than he is, that he is a 
sinner. The writers of the New Testament take 
equal pains to prove that all men in the sight of 
God, are sinners, and that Christ died for all sinners. 
Even the typical sacrifices did not, as some speak, 
pass by sinners or leave one and select another. 
All sinners of the same class might offer sacrifices 
in common. 

But faith regards things past, present, and to 



13G DISCOURSE SIXTH. 

come ; and so it differs from hope which regards 
only things to come. In each of these respects, 
faith has its law or laws modified to the occasions 
or objects. " By faith," says the Apostle, " we un- 
derstand that the worlds were framed." The crea- 
tion of the world, by the word of God, is matter of 
of historical record, and faith in it transfers it to our 
understandings. There is a law of historical evi- 
dence or of credibility, on which all historical infor- 
mation depends. The human mind has no ante- 
knowledge. All that is past without historical tes- 
timony, is to us as though it had never been. Faith 
is certainly the medium of all that we can know of 
the past. A fictitious history, when known to be 
such or no longer believed, beco mesn the mind a 
non-entity, and true history if not believed is the 
same in effect. We cannot reason upon any mat- 
ter of record we do not believe. We may, indeed, 
be deceived or led into error by false or invented 
history. But true history itself has no power over 
any mind, while under the influence of unbelief. 
A catalogue of unbelievers is given in the eleventh 
chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews, as examples. 
But of what avail would they be to those who have 
no faith in their existence ? The same neutralizing 
effects must needs be produced on the minds of un- 
believers, respecting all recorded cases of punish- 
ment. Who fears the repetition of judgments, he 
does not believe ever to have happened 1 The prac- 
tical effect of unbelief in true history is to reduce 



THE LAW OF FAITH, 137 

the mind to a state of ignorance. The infidel in 
bible history knows no more about the creation or 
the flood, than one who never heard of a bible. He 
will like the other avow his ignorance, and say 
he does not know, because he does not believe. 

Now, to all who have lived since the records of 
the Messiah were written, the knowledge of Him, 
like the knowledge of the creation, is historical. 
Through faith, we understand that Jesus was born 
in Bethlehem, was crucified on Calvaiy, rose from 
the dead, and ascended into heaven from the Mount 
of Olives. Those who do not believe this history 
do not understand it as a record of facts, but as a 
fiction. Unbelief is, as it were, a non-conductor of 
historical knowledge. It repels, instead of attract- 
ing. This law of faith is well understood anions 
critics in history. After all their labor in collecting 
evidence, they have found unbelief invincible. The 
well-known work on the Credibility of Gospel His- 
tory, has called forth the admiration of many of the 
most competent judges; but to the mind of unbe- 
lief it is like water spilt upon a rock. 

Faith has a peculiar operation upon things pre- 
sent. The law of confidence in the intercourse 
between man and man, is fully understood. Society 
can only be established upon this law. So the so- 
ciety between Jesus and his disciples Avas formed; 
and so the primitive church was formed. There 
was no coercive power to be brought to bear in ei- 
ther of these cases. If other laws had existed, they 



138 DISCOURSE SIXTH. 

could not have been executed. Each member of 
society was free to come and free to go. An ex- 
ample of this law of faith or confidence has occur- 
red in our own country in the case of the Bank of tlBe 
United States. Money was more plenty and com- 
merce more nourishing than it had ever been known 
to be. An order from the Treasury is issued that 
the bills of the Bank are no longer to be received 
in the Custom Houses, or that the deposites of the 
Treasury are to be removed from the Bank. Im- 
mediately money disappears and commerce is 
checked throughout the Union, and yet the actual 
amount of money remains the same. In this state 
of fearful suspense, bankruptcies having commenc- 
ed, news arrives from Europe of a gre-et rise in the 
price of cotton, and a premium is actually offered 
for it in preference to payments in specie ; almost 
instantly money becomes more plentiful than ever 
and commerce more active. All these fluctuations 
take place while the amount of money is nearly the 
same ; the fall and the rise were all in the credit, 
that is the faith. The government which issued 
the order for the removal of the deposites, had no 
power over the money holders and lenders. The 
law which governed was the law of confidence. 
That law had been broken, was gone. It was re- 
stored in consequence of the balance of European 
exchange being restored in favor of America, by an 
unexpected rise in one of the principle articles of 
export. Now, had the power of the government 



T II E LAW OF FAITH. 139 

over persons and property been absolute, there would 
have been no faith in the case, or none sufficient to 
nreke a change so great in commerce. The law of 
/ iciil and you shall, ani not the law of credit, 
would have prevailed. The analogy holds good in 
all cases pertaining to religious intercourse. The 
rises and falls are not in the stock of grace, but in 
faith and unbelief. The grace cannot be maJe to 
circulate among free agents without faith. The 
commerce of grace is carried on (so to speak) upon 
the credit system or law of faith. Men trust God, 
and is it too much to say that' God trusts men ? 
" In that," says St. Paul, " he counted me faithful, 
putting me into the ministry." " Be faithful unto 
death, and I will give thee a crown of life." " And 
he did not there many mighty works, because of 
their unbelief." Is there not as much grace before 
and after a revival, as there is while it lasts ? We 
pray that God may pour out his spirit, but not surely 
upon our unbelief. Will he entrust us with his 
grace unless he account us faithful ? Unbelievers 
are not trust- worthy. Such is the lav/ of faith per- 
taining to matters and things present, that without 
confidence in each other, Christians and Ministers 
cannot have fellowship with each other. They 
cannot pray for and receive present blessings, can- 
not pie aye God. 

Faith in things to come, the law of faith in par- 
ticular, is such that it regulates hope. No faith in 
things to come — no hope in them. Faith is not 



140 DISCOURSE SIXTH, 

only the evidence of things not seen, but the sub- 
stance of things hoped for. He, who lives without 
a belief of heaven, lives without hope of heaven. 
He, who dies without a belief of heaven, dies with- 
out hope of heaven. Why cannot a man live 
and die in hope of that which he does not believe ? 
Why need aa unbeliever despair ? Let any man 
make the experiment upon himself, and he will 
prove the law. It is a law of mind in all tenden- 
cies to despair, or as hope fails or proves weak, to 
fall back upon faith. Hence the difficulty of rea- 
soning or persuading one's self in the absence of 
true confidence, without false confidence. The 
last resort of infidelity is, in the eternal sleep of 
death. 

The mind was made for faith, and faith was 
made for mind. All intellectual operations, are in 
some mode or degree, connected with faith. No faith, 
no truth, no true .reasoning. The unbeliever rea- 
sons about religion, but reasons it away. His con- 
clusion is, that death is nothing, and nothing is af- 
ter death. To a mind as devoid of hope as of 
faith, all is here, all is present ; an invisible God is 
not in all his thoughts. How can he who thinks 
that nothing is invisible think of invisibility ? Co- 
lumbus had faith enough to induce him to embark 
on a voyage over an unknown, ocean. His faith 
did not fail him during the whole vova^e. He 
discovered land, not the land of Asia he went to 
seek, but an unknown region, the land of America. 



T II E L A W O P FAITH. 1 4X 

Had the maxim of Columbus been, — nothing is in 
the ocean, nothing beyond it, he could have made 
no voyage, no discovery. Unbelief would have 
been non-entity in his mind. All great attempts 
and enterprises and all perseverance, depend upon 
faith. A universal unbeliever can do nothing, can 
attempt nothing. His mind is reduced to the con- 
dition of an irrational animal, he is but a creature 
of animal instincts. Men of calculation in all the 
arts and sciences of life have much faith in the past, 
present, and the future ; for the past and the future 
are connected with man's interests in this life, as 
well as the present. : In religion the faith, of Abra- 
ham procured him the title of the Father of the 
Faithful. Through all periods of his eventful life, 
he ventured upon, the dark uncertainty of the fu- 
ture, without a sensible evidence or example to 
guide him. By faith he sojourned in a strange 
land, not knowing whither he went. And, in 
regard to the great, the ultimate subject of the pio- 
mise, he believed in hope against hope, not only 
without precedent or probability but against them 
all. His faith was counted for righteousness. It 
was in him, the modified principle of all righteous- 
ness, the mover to all obedience. By faith he of- 
fered up (prepared to offer up) his son Isaac, and 
for this unparralleled example of obedient faith 
was called the Friend of God. Behold! how 
his faith wrought with his works, and how by his 
works his faith was made perfect — obedience as 



142 DISCOURSE SIXTH. 

has been stated being the end of faith. "Now, 
the end of the commandment is charity, out of a 
pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith 
unfeigned." 

We hear nothing of a law of miracles, the com- 
mon definition of a miracle being — a temporary 
suspension of a law. It has also been argued, that 
a repetition of a miracle would convert it into a law. 
And indeed, examples somewhat analogous do oc- 
cur in natural history, in the form of what is called 
abortions or abortive germs. If all these germs 
were to be fully developed they would be consider- 
ed as monsters ; though now they have become so 
general as to be considered as natural. But justifi- 
cation by faith is not a miracle. It does not sus- 
pend any law of nature, or of mind, or of morali- 
ty. It is only a dead faith that will not work, which 
is abortive. A false faith or a faith that has a false 
object will be operative and will operate its own 
ends. The rewards and punishments of faith and 
unbelief conform to those of moral law, that is, are 
equable and not partial. " He that doubts is con- 
demned if he eats, for whatever is not of faith, is 
sin." The position is exemplified in clean and 
unclean meats. There is no sin in the eating of 
of an} 7 kind of wholesome food under the gospel. 
But while the mind of one brought under the law 
hesitates, or before it is settled upon the principle, — 
to eat meats unclean according to the law may be 
sin, for conscience cannot approve of aetions in 



THE LAW OF FAITH. 143 

doubtful cases. The rule is, — let every man be 
fully persuaded in his own mind. The law of faith 
extends to self-confidence also. A man who acts 
from a confidence that he is acting right may be 
acting wrong, and afterwards be convinced ; but 
this conviction will not affect his sincerity. This 
was St. Paul's case, " I verily once thought, I 
ought to do many things contrary to the name of 
Jesus of Nazareth, which things I also did." Had 
he done things much less criminal in their nature, 
without thinking thus verily or not being fully per- 
suaded in his own mind, his sincerity might have 
been implicated and he might not have been able 
to have said, — I did it ignorantly and in unbelief. 
When we deal dishonestly with our own consciences 
our consciences too are apt to become treacherous. 
He who has followed the best light he has had may 
deplore his want of better light as his misfortune, 
but it is not his fault. The miraculous interven- 
tion of the divine power in the call of St. Paul did 
not justify him without faith. "He washed away 
his sins, calling on the name of the Lord Jesus of 
whom he had heard and in whom he believed, nor 
was he backward after he had believed in his heart 
unto righteousness to confess him with his mouth 
unto salvation." 

Faith then, as we have stated, according io the 
divisions of the tbings of God, has respect unto 
them all, — past, present and to come. We are 'in- 
terested in the past and the future, as well as in the 



144 DISCOURSE SIXTH. 

present. There is a strange disposition manifested 
by some people to make religion a mere thing of a 
day — a mere passing occurrence. In this view of 
it they see of course but little use for prophecies and 
promises, and much less for the vast provision of 
redemption and the necessity of faith. But the Fa- 
ther of the Spirits of all flesh is loving to every man, 
and his tender mercies are over all his works. All 
souls are his ; he provides redemption and salvation 
for the world, for the ages and for the generation, 
and for eternity. The Messiah said, that " Abra- 
ham with joy anticipated his day." And Si. Paul 
says that, — " The scriptures foreseeing that God 
would justify the heathen through faith, preached 
the gospel before unto Abraham, raying, — ' In thy 
see*d shall all the nations be blessed.' " If Christ 
died but once, and at some period of time between 
the beginning and the end of the world, it follows 
that the faith of those who lived before he died 
must have have been in ihe promise of that coming 
event, and the faith of those who lived after the 
event in the history of the fact. Our faith there- 
fore must now go back eighteen hundred years, 
and this it may do for history never wears out and 
once true never ceases to be true. But the pro- 
mises and predictions of the gospel not only carry 
our faith to the end of time, — they carry it into 
eternity and are commensurate with the soul's 
immortality. 



THE LAW OF FAITH. 145 

Faith in thy changeless name I have ; 

Though eighteen hundred years are past, 
Since thou didst in our flesh appear, 

Thy tender mercies ever last, — 
Lo ! — thy promise still is here. 

"Jesus Christ yesterday, to-day, and forever (he 
same." Faith looks for and hastens unto the com- 
ing of the day of God, when the heavens shall be 
on fire. It is confident of a day of judgment 
when Jesus shall come to take vengeance and to 
be admired in al) them that believe, both for his 
justice and his grace. The law of faith is, that it 
must be held fast with a good conscience. It is 
not out of danger of being lost in this world and is 
subject to a probation. " The trial of your faith 
being much more precious than that of gold that pe- 
risbeih, though it be tried in the fire." " Contend 
earnestly for the faith." " Striving together for the 
faith of the gospel." " And .have overthrown the 
faith of some." " They have made shipwreck of 
the faith and a good conscience." These and 
other texts prove that it is not the confidence of a 
day which finally saves the soul, but the confidence 
which endures to the end. The believers who lived 
before the coming of Christ all died in the faith — 
the faith of the promised Messiah. If their faith 
had failed, how could they have continued to please 
God? 

Believers seem to have been beset with peculiar 
13 



146 DISCOURSE SIXTH. 

temptations respecting the practical law of faith. 
Antinomianism, that is the making void the law, 
through faith, (from Awl against , and No^os law,) 
existed from the earliest times. The text evidently 
recognises the opinion and opposes it. Faith in the 
merit of the Messiah's death, though it cannot be 
consistent with the continuance of the legal sacri- 
fices, does net make void the principle of sacrifice 
but establishes it. So Christ came not to destroy (to 
make void) the law, but to fulfil (to establish) the 
principle. The law of sacrifice or sin-offering is, 
that sacrifice is necessary to pardon or that redemp- 
tion is necessary to salvation. Now, this law is 
not subverted when the sacrifice is given for the 
sinner instead of being given by himself. No law 
can forbid or prevent a gift from being given ; the 
law is not against the promises of God. If the law 
cannot be satisfied without a ransom, it must be sat- 
isfied with one if it can make no objection to the 
giver,. It is remarkable that faith establishes this 
very principle of substitution, for faith can have no 
other objective sacrifice. When the sinnejr has 
given the sacrifice for himself it is not properly the 
object of his faith, — it cannot be so separated from 
himself to be believed in as not being his own act 
and property. It is not the faith of men in them- 
selves and their own acts which establishes the law 
or any law. . The text never can be supposed to have 
concluded that a man is justified by faith in himself 



THE LAW OF FAITH. 147 

But the main point in the argument is, that faith 
establishes the moral law, establishes its authority- 
over die believer himself. . Believers are to. come to 
judgment. — We must all appear before the judg- 
ment seat of Christ. All must give au account for 
the deeds done in the body, and all be judged ac- 
cording to our works. It is a common remark that the 
Scriptures never say, — we shall be judged according 
to our faith. And why should it be so said, if faith 
does not make void the law but esiablishes it ? In 
the day of ur conversion we are justified, but not by 
works. In the day of final judgment we are justi- 
fied by the evidence of works, for the believer is 
held bound by his faith in Christ and so is under law 
to Christ; but the law of Christ is moral and spirit- 
ual. " Behold ! thou art made whole, — sin no more 
lest a worse thing come upon thee." " It is better for 
them not to have known the way of righteousness, 
than after they have known it, to turn from the holy 
commandment delivered unto them." Suppose two 
men before thejudge; the one having never offended, 
and the other a sinner who has believed and obey- 
ed according to the law of faith* Can the former be 
rewarded and the other condemned ? What is he 
to be condemned for? For his sins? Not so. He 
has been justified by faith. Shall he then be con- 
deuied for his work of faith ? Nay. " The law is 
fulfilled in us who are in Christ Jesus, who walk 
not after the flesh, but after the spirit." The law 
then, is the standard in the day of final judgment. 



148 DISCOURSE SIXTH. 

The universe is supposed to be the observers and 
the approvers of the final judgment; but they can 
only approve according to law. The works shall be 
manifest, (he day shall declare them. So the law 
of faith is not incompatible with a future judg- 
ment and rewards and punishments. 

The doctrine of assurance of faith also claims 
attention. Is not this long controverted subject, 
after all that has been said and written upon it, 
to be settled by referring it to the law of faith ? 
What is the inherent tendency of the principle of 
faith in respect to this point? Is it to conduct the 
mind to assurance or to a state of uncertainty ? To 
answer these questions, must not the nature and re- 
lation of doubt, be decided? How is doubt related 
to faith and unbelief, or to certainty and uncertain- 
ty ? We think there can be but one opinion or an- 
swer. Doubt is naturally related to unbelief or un- 
certainty. The tendency of faith is not to doubt. 
Faith may weaken unbelief and doubts may re- 
main ; but they remain as parts of unbelief and not 
of faith. The progress of faith must tend to destroy 
hem, not to foster them. Faith begets assurances 
as its legitimate offspring. This is the law of con- 
sequence. Doubt is not from faith, as darkness is 
not from the sun. 

Nor mount the shades till he is gone. 

Experience -furnishes many cases of the progress of 
faith, in which the mind is conducted to a state 



THE LAW OF FAITH. 149 

Wherein it can no longer doubt. Navigation cart 
no longer doubt the truth of celestial observation. 
The chemist cannot doubt the result of his experi- 
ments. The geometer cannot doubt the length of 
the hypothenuse after he has measured the legs of 
his right angled triangle. But these were once 
doubtful cases. Why cannot a believer arrive at 
such a degree of faith as no longer to doubt that his 
sins are forgiven ? The cause surely lies not in the 
law of faith. If there be any cause why he cannot, 
it raust be in something external to faith or the 
mind. The power of faith over the mind is 
naturally stronger than unbelief. Great is truth and 
must prevail ; or rather great is the evid&nce of truth 
and where it can be brought to bear upon the mind 
it must prevail. Unbelief is not irresistible. There 
is a crisis in which it shrinks from an open trial of 
strength with evidence. It dare not look demon- 
stration full in the face. The law of faith is pro- 
gressive. "From faith to faith, as it is written; 
the just shall live by faith." There is a progress 
in revelation. The being of God, the Mediator, and 
the Holy Spirit were revealed in succession. The 
law took precedence in practice, of the Gospel. 
Repentance is before justifying faith, and justifica- 
tion precedes sanctification. A belief in one truth 
prepares the way for another. There is a growth 
in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus 
Christ. Whoever contemplates the plan of salva- 
tion, can hardly fail to perceive (hat works as a priu- 
13* 



150 DISCOURSE SIXTH. 

ciple could have had no adaptation to it, or to the 
developemetil of truth in the mind. The expansive 
nature of faith seems only to be calculated for an 
increase of knowledge. 

In endeavoring to ascertain the law of faith, it 
will be perceived that we have not only sought for 
information from the written text of revelation ; but 
have admitted the method of natural philosophers, 
to seek for information in experience and observa- 
tion. But in so wide a field time restricted us to items, 
incidents, and allusions. But we feel persuaded, 
that the period cannot be distant when some mas- 
ter genius, by the aid of experience and observation, 
will give the world a demonstration of the law of 
faith more clear and satisfactory than some of tho 
examples of inductive philosophy itself. 

Cincinnati, January, 183S. 



DISCOURSE SEVExNTE 

JUSTIFYING FAITH. 



For all hare sinned, and come short of the glciy of God '; being 
justified freely by Ins grace through the redemption that is in Christ 
Jesus : whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith 
in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins 
that are past, through the forbearance of God ; to declare, I say, at 
this time his righteousness : that he might be just} and the justifier 
'of him that belieVeth in Jesus. 

Romdnstii. 23--26. 

Could a fairer example be found for a theorist or 
a system -maker, than this text? Why has no re- 
ligious denomination been founded upon it? It seems 
to contain the elements of a creed in itself. Do we 
need an article of faith respecting the sins of men? 
Here is one. "All have sinned and come short of 
the glory of God." Is a formula needed to express 
the conception of the mind respecting grace and re- 
demption ? Can a better one be found than,— 
" being justified freely by his grace, through the re- 
demption that is in Christ Jesus?" Who that reads 
this passage can help perceiving that free grace and 
redemption are no unscri plural associations? Is it 
desirable to have the point settled, whether the 
death of Christ was sacrificial or only exemplary? 
Is it not settled by these words,—" Whom God set 
forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood ?" 
In all vicarious sacrifices the blood, the shedding of 



152 DISCOURSE SEVEN^IL 

blood, is an essential part. Faith in his blood could 
not be required, if he only died to show how good 
men should die. Can the disputes, which. have 
continued so long and often with so much violence, 
about the extent to which sins are remitted be de- 
cided more satisfactorily than by the very words, — • 
" to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins 
that are past?" — not the remission of sins that are 
past, present, and to come, as some speak. And 
whether the justice of God is in any wise involved 
in justification is settled by this passage, — " that he 
might be just, and yet the justifier of him that be- 
lieveth in Jesus." It is to be inferred then, that it 
would not be just to justify without faith in Jesus. 
Wrath, anger or vengeance, when referred to God, 
are forms of his justice. "God is angry, with the 
wicked every day,"— means that the wicked are 
continually obnoxious to his justice. Justice con- 
stantly demands their punishment. "In the day, 
thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die,"— -means, 
death shall be thy due and if it be not executed, 
mercy, not justice, prevents. So in regard to all- 
sin ; hence the text speaks of the forbearance of 
God. Justice cannot be controlled or compelled, 
unless it be first conquered. Punishment of sin is 
delayed through the forbearance of God, and the 
pardon of sin and final salvation are by the grace of 
God; but neither of them through immediate jus- 
tice, nor in defiance of it. It is impossible for God 
to lie; and is it not impossible for him to be unjust? 



JUSTIFYING FAITH. 153 

To justify implies more than simply to pardon ; it 
implies public action or an open expression. When 
God treats one sinner as an innocent man and not 
another or another sinner of the same character as a 
guilty man, some reason will be sought why is this 
•difference. Is not this partiality, is not this injustice ? 
The inquiry is anticipated, — " declare, I say, at 
this time, his righteousness." This favored sinner 
believeth in Jesus. God is just in justifying him. 
He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins. The 
unbeliever cannot complain of the partiality or in- 
justice of God when he sees the believing sinner 
taken into favor and himself excluded for his unbe- 
lief. There must be no ground, no cause to sus- 
pect the justice of God in the displays of his mercy 
and grace. But there must be an obvious, a mark- 
ed line of distinction between those whom he blesses, 
and those whom he blesses not. No two believers 
of equal faith can be differently regarded ; and no 
two unbelievers can have separate lots. If all the 
world have sinned, and God makes a church out of 
part, and leaves the other part without declaring any 
reason ; as every man however unjust himself has 
a quick sense of injustice in others, complaints will 
be made, and if they are not anticipated it will be 
difficult to answer them. But to see some believers 
justified and others not, and some unbelievers con- 
demned and others not, confounds in the mind all 
sense of justice. But this can never happen, for his 
righteousness is so declared as forever to prevent his 



154 DISCOURSE SEVENTH. 

righteousness from being impeached as the jusiifier 
of him who believeth in Jesus. 

We now proceed to inquire about the faith which 
renders justification consistent with the justice of 
God. This faith is in Jesus. On this point the 
text is explicit. It is usual to regard faith as a single 
act, and also justification. But should they not 
both be considered as continuous throughout the 
period of life? But there must be a beginning of 
faith or of believing, and there must be a time of 
the forgiveness of sins that are past. It is hardly 
conceivable that the sins of a man's past life should 
begin to be remitted, when he first believes, and 
continue to be remitted, from time to time b}^ degrees, 
until they are all remitted. On this point there is 
much confusion in many minds. There are per- 
sons who manifest the greatest repugnance to the 
idea of instantaneous conversion or justification, as 
though they really conceived, that sins which are 
past, are actualty to be remitted, as it were, piece- 
meal. And yet it is difficult to imagine, how they 
could seriously think of defending so strange and so 
unreasonable a position. Every unprejudiced and 
reflecting mind must be brought to the conclusion, 
that the remission of sins that are past must be one 
entire and comprehensive act of grace, at one time. 
Repentance for sins that are past certainly intention- 
ally comprehends them all. No truly awakened 
and convinced sinner ever thinks of repenting of a 
part of his sins at one time, and of other parts at 



JUSTIFYING FAITH. 155 

other times. There is a day, an hour, a min- 
ute conceivable, when all the sins that are past, of 
his whole life, are remitted. On the part of God, 
this conception of the mind meets with no difficul- 
ty whatever. If there be any preventive, it must 
be in faith or believing ; but faith in a promise, or 
a truth, or a fact,- or in an offered favor, is no slow 
and tedious process. It is an act of the mind or 
thought, and may be as quick as thought, and the 
consequent emotion or feeling may be almost as 
quick. Progressive repentance and progressive par- 
'dons for past sins, however, have found advocates 
in books and in pulpits ; and a strange course they 
lead those who attempt to follow them. They may 
as truly, as mournfully sing ; — 

Now I revive, and now I am slain, 
Here I repent and sm again ! 

The apostle states the case~clearly, — that we obtain 
remisssion of sins through faith in his blood. 

Very few, perhaps not one, in their first experi- 
ence of justifying faith, have an enlarged and a 
scriptural view of ail the bearings and modifications 
of the objects of faith, or of ail the occasions and 
circumstances under which faith may be called 
into exercise. The Messiah as considered in his 
three fold offices of Prophet, Priest and King, is a 
three-fold object of faith. And few cases can occur, 
in which faith in one of these offices can meet all the 
demands for faith, in the other two offices. It is in his 



156 DISCOURSE SEVENTH. 

Priestly office, that we exercise faith in his blood. 
" He loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own 
blood." " They washed their robes and made 
them white, in the blood of the lamb." As a Pro- 
phet, his predictions and instructions must be believ- 
ed ; and as a King", his authority and laws must 
be so believed as to be obeyed. Now in the day 
of conversion, the believer may be ignorant of many 
things pertaining to the Prophetic and Kingly offi- 
ces of the Saviour. But if a repenting sinner could 
not believe so as to be justified by faith, until he 
should have a complete knowledge of all the offices 
of the Messiah, there would be but few justified be- 
lievers in this world. The blood of the everlasting 
covenant is made to stand as an identical object. — 
" In whom we have redemption through faith in his 
blood, even the forgiveness of sins." In the same 
manner, the cross of Christ becomes indentified with 
faith and forgiveness ; for the cross, the blood of the 
cross, and the death of the cross, all convey one 
leading idea, the idea of the merits of the sacrificial 
death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance is pro- 
gressive in the mind and in the feelings, though the 
first impulse which produces it, may be quick and 
sudden. It commences in knowledge, light or dis- 
covery ; and the light of the mind, like the materi- 
al light, takes no long time to makeafirstimpression, 
though both the light and the mind may need time 
to perceive all the details of subjects at first seen or 
discovered in a body or in whole, But justification 



JUSTIFYING FAITH. 15? 

or remission of sins (hat are past, is not the act of 
ths mind, but of God, and with him, it admits of no 
details. The merit or the redemption price is all 
procured and ready, and is so apprehended by faith. 
Pardon or forgiveness of sin then, is not be consid- 
ered as a book account, between debtor and creditor, 
in which the debtor pays in pails and takes receipts 
for what, he pays, leaving" the balance due still stand- 
ing against, him. This answers to the opinion of 
those who are charged with holding salvation by 
works or legal righteousness. And it is against this 
opinion or doctrine, in some one or other of its mod- 
ifications, that those ^writers and preachers, who are 
called, or call themselves Evangelical, so frequent- 
ly declaim with the utmost vehemence, and who, 
though they all agree in opposing a common error, 
are not. always agreed among themselves in com- 
mon truths. Our truism is, — repentance may be a 
work of years, but i emission of sins that are past, 
through faith in the blood of Jesus, is instantaneous 
and complete at once. 

It is however an interesting inquiry, whether jus- 
tifying faith does not. imply or include a disposition 
or willingness to know and believe and obey, to (he 
fid extent, that Jesus is set forth in the gospel, in all 
his offices'? Let it be supposed, for instance, that 
before his conversion a person should know of a cer- 
tain command of the Lord Jesus, which he was not 
willing to obey, Or of a certain doctrine which he 
was not willing to believe, though neither of them 
14 



158 DISCOURSE SEVENTH. 

were connected with the belief that the son of man 
has power on earth to forgive sins ; would not this 
unwillingness be an impediment to an exercise of 
justifying faith? Or, suppose these commands or 
doctrines should come to be known after conversion, 
would not a consciousness of this unwillingness to 
obey or to believe them, throw the mind into per- 
plexity, respecting former experience, if not change 
some of its views of former experience ? There are 
cases of experience enough to remove all supposi- 
tion. The prejudices df education, of customs, and 
of circumstances, have vast influence over the most 
serious and well disposed minds. The searcher and 
knower of all hearts, alone can judge of these cases. 
It becomes not the creatures of these common preju- 
dices, to sit in judgement upon each other in these 
matters. The general rule seems to be, as far as we 
can gather it from the scriptures, that, however lim- 
ited our knowledge may be r justifying faith includes 
a willingness to know and to believe and to obey 
every truth of Jesus, or the truth as it is in Jesus, 
and so contains the germs or stamina of obedience. 
So it should seem it is accounted for righteousness. 
That the believer has a disposition or willingness to 
obey Jesus 5 , will appear from the answer to the ques- 
iiQn y — is faith an obedient or a rebellious principle? 
It is an obedient principle. If there bs fust a will- 
ing mind, — but a believing mind is a willing mind, 
— it is accepted according to what a man hath, and 
not according to what he hath not. Faith and re- 






JUSTIFYING FAITH. 159 

bellion car. not long exist together. Might God be 
just and yet the justifyer of the rebellious? No. 
" This is the victory that overcometh the world, 
even our faith." Who is he, that overcometh the 
world, but he that believeth, that Jesus is the son of 
God ? Believers followed Jesus through the regen- 
eration. They were faithful unto death. The 
more we examine, the more evidence we shall find 
to convince us that increasing knowledge of the 
will of our Lord and Saviour will require a corres- 
ponding increase of our faiih. It is comforting, it 
is strengthening, to coll to mind the gladness of that 
happy day, when first we knew the Lord, when first 
we tasted he was gracious ; but when, in the order 
of Providence, we may be called upon to follow 
Jesus, we shall need the utmost measure of faith 
in his power, as head over all things to the church, 
as head over all things to the believer. 

St. Paul, at the approach of his martyrdom, says, • 
— " I have kept the faith." He had kept that prin- 
ciple which dictated the enquiry, — "Lord, what 
wouldest thou have me to do?" — an enquiry which 
followed immediately after (he declaration, — " I am 
Jesus, whom thou persecutes!." He had kept that 
principle which was ready to acquiesce in the future 
disclosure, signified in the words, — "I will show 
thee how great things thou shalt suffer for iny 
name's sake." The faith that Paul had kept, must 
have been greatly increased, and was greatly strength- 



160 DISCOUESE SEVENTH. 

ened, when the time of his departure was at hand, 
and when he was ready to be offered up. In no 
labor did his faith fail ; in no suffering or trial, did 
he loose it. There was indeed a crisis, in which he 
became importunate in his prayers, but the answer 
was, — " my grace is sufficient for thee, my strength 
is made perfect in weakness," — and it inspired new 
fortitude and new joy. The justice of God is ex- 
emplified in justifying the believer in Jesus, in all 
his labors and sufferings, and in all his triumphant 
anticipations of death. Such visions and revelations, 
such miracles and providences, such perils and such 
deliverances, — did they not justify the laboring and 
the suffering believer in the Lord Jesus? But if 
so, then God's justice must be defended in such dis- 
plays of grace and power, to a persecutor of the 
church, to a blasphemer who had proved so injuri- 
ous. This difficulty has often been felt, and at- 
tempts been made to meet it, by offering as a max- 
im, — " the greater the sinner, the greater the saint," 
— or by illustrating the parable of the two debtors, 
the one owing five hundred pence, and (he other 
fifty pence. Preachers have been heard to exclaim 
from the pulpit, — who would be a fifty pence sin- 
ner? " This is not St. Paul's manner of extolling 
the grace of God ; he does not thus leave the justice 
of God liable to any imputations of consequences, 
but as one speaks, he exhibits the divine attributes, 
as full orbed, — 



JUSTIFYING FAITH. 161 

In all their rounds of rays complete, 

Nor dares a creature guess, 
Which of the glories brightest shone, 

The justice or the grace! 

The maxim alluded to, would have been nearer the 
truth, if it had been. — ■" the greater the believer, the 
greater the saint." The great persecutor had become 
a great believer. As a true son of Abraham, he was 
strong in faith, giving glory to God. But he says, 
in so many words, " that he is under law to Christ." 
He fought the good fight of faith, under the captain 
of his salvation, and of course, in obedience to his 
orders. He went not to this warfare, according to 
his own will, any more than at his own charges ; 
but sought to please him who had called him to be 
his soldier. He who obtains remissions of sins that 
are past, may die and go to heaven. But if he does 
not die, immediately after his justification, he must 
so live, as to be able to say, — lC nevertheless I live, 
yet not 1, but Christ liveth in me ; and the life 
that I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of 
God, who loved me and gave himself for me." No 
man can say with truth, — I will livje, — and not act. 
Life is emotion or action. And this is as true of 
the life of faith, as of any other mode of life. St. 
James therefore says, — " that faith without works is 
dead." If the believer does not die and go to hea- 
ven, he must go to work. His faith, if he lives, 
must work or it most die. But if faith lives and 
works, it ought to work to some purpose. Nature, 
14* 



162 DISCOURSE SEVENTH. 

reason, grace revolt at the idea of labor in vain. The 
faith of the believer in Jesus takes on the form of 
obedience to Jesus. Its life is a germ of obedience 
to him who calls it forth to himself a? its object.— 
The man, who is the object of his own faith, wil£ 
obey himself only. Now all the attributes and offi- 
ces, and I itles, and relations of Jesus, call forth the 
obedience of faith or of believers, to him. He is 
head of every believer, and of all believers collective- 
ly in their social or church relation. He is their 
benefactor and protector. Their happiness and 
safety are in, and by, and through him. Christ is 
the head ; believers are the body. All bodies obey 
their heads; they look to their heads for direction. 
Heads are obeyed as objects of faith or trust. Every 
community looks to it governor, in time of danger, 
for protection. 

God justifies believers in Jesus, not only by the 
remission of sins that are past, through faith in his 
blood, in the day of their conversion, but in contin- 
uance ; because their faith in his authority and 
grace preserves them against sin, and assists them to 
obey his laws, or to walk after his Spirit and not 
after their flesh. The law of his Spirit of life makes 
them free from their law of sin and death. The 
zeal of certain professedly evangelical men, in main- 
taining that all the merit of the gospel consists in 
pardoning sin, impels them to maintain, or to speak 
as though they meant to maintain, that there is no- 
thing but sin in believers. Others, shocked at this 



JUSTIFYING FAITH. 163 

decline, have manifested no less zeal, in maintain- 
ing inherent righteousness in believers. Christians 
are thus divided, between the doctrines of imputed 
and inherent righteousness. Amidst these mighty 
conflicts of opinions and feelings, the following texts 
stiil stand in the gospel, where they will foreverstand : 
— " Now to him, that hath power to stablish you ac- 
cording to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus 
Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, 
which was kept secret since the world began, butnow 
is manifest by the Prophets, according to the com- 
mandent of the everlasting God, made known to all 
nations, for the obedience of faith." Obedience of 
faith is neither imputed nor inherent. It is from him 
who hath power to establish the believer according to 
thegospel. " Rutthe God of all grace who hath called 
.us unto his eternal glory, by Christ Jesus, after that 
ye have suffered awhile, make you perfect, stablish, 
strengthen and settle you. To him be glory and 
dominion forever and ever, Amen !" " I can do all 
things, through Christ who strengthened! me." Tak- 
ing these and similar texts into view, would not de- 
rived righteousness be more in accordance with 
them, than either imputed or inherent, — derived 
from the Lord Jesus Christ, through faith? So, the 
passage, — " I am the vine, and ye are the branches" 
— proceeds upon the idea of derivation, rather than 
the other terms. 

The term justification occurs in connexion with 
the resurrection. " He was delivered for our of- 



164 DISCOURSE SEVENTH. 

fences and rose again for our justification." And 
again, with faith. " Being justified by faith we 
have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus 
Christ." In these places, though it includes the 
pardon of sin, it seems to refer to a state or condi 
tion. Good works as synonymous with the obedi- 
ence of faith, are rewardable. u God is not unrigh- 
teous to forget your work of faith and labor of love." 
" Be not weary in well-doing for in due time, ye 
shall reap if ye faint not. Ye know that your la- 
bor is not in vain in the Lord." Neither faith as a 
principle, nor the works what spring from it, are 
ever regarded as sin, but as opposed to sin. Faith 
is approved, unbelief condemned. When the be- 
liever, who obeys his Lord and King, feels the im- 
perfection of his obedience, he commends him to 



The father hears him pray, 
His dear annointed one ; 
He cannot turn away, 
■ The presence of his Son. 

" Ye shall ask what ye will in my name, and it 
shall be done unto you." 

We have taken pains to show how faitli conforms 
to the offices of the divine Redeemer, and especially 
to show that, as a king, he must be obeyed. What 
is a king without laws and authority to enforce 
them ? Jesus is the King of Saints. " Ye call me 
Lord and Master, and ye say well for so I am." 



JUTIFYING FAITH. 165 

But if I am your Lord, where is my honor ; if I am 
your master, where is my fear ? Jesus must be 
obeyed. " If ye love me keep my commandments." 
All things are possible to him that belie veth in Je- 
sus. His name, his all prevailing name, can give 
sanction and success to our best endeavors. With- 
out him we can do nothing to religious purpose. 
The justice of God would be a consuming lire to 
all other merit. 

In illustration of derived righteousness, truth may 
be an example, as the analogies, though they do 
not universally hold, apply in the leading points. 
Truth is neither imputed nor inherent. It is ob- 
tained from Jesus its author, by derivation, and 
cannot be derived without faith in him, as its au- 
thor. To take his } T oke upon us with an intention 
to learn of him is to believe in him as a teacher. 
Learners profit nothing by teachers in whom they 
have no confidence. Learning is a slow process, 
and Cdlls for constancy and perseverance, as well as 
strength of faith. There can be no inherent truth, 
where there is no inherent knowledge. Ignorance 
is not truth nor the parent of tiuth. It is only 
among certain disciples of the old mystic and phi- 
losophical schools, that appeals are made from writ- 
ten revelation to the light within, or that natural 
revelation is preferred before the words of the great 
teacher. The whole intellectual nature must be 
brought under the yoke of the meek and lowly Je- 
sus, together with the heart. What are called flist 



166 DISCOURSE SEVENTH. 

principles are to be learned from Jesus ; he gives the 
elements of truth, the milk for the babes in know- 
ledge, and the strong meat for those who are of full 
age. Reason is not to be trusted as a leader and 
guide, in any stage of the progress of religious 
knowledge. It cannot take a step beyond revela- 
tion, and so far as revelation goes faith must go with 
it. Reason may and must examine the meaning 
of revelation, but if it questions its authority, it as- 
sumes powers and rights which faith never aspires 
to, — that is, it takes the place of a principal and not 
of a dependant. Learn of me, always implies, be- 
lieve that I can teach you. Let the disciple learn 
of his teacher, let his mind be richly imbued with 
the wisdom of his master, and let him be interro- 
gated respecting the id/io, and the how. Who taught 
you? Jesus. How did he teach you, or how did 
you receive his instructions? Through faith. 1 
did not reason, argue, dispute, contend with him as 
an equal, not to say a superior. I brought my 
mind, my reason, to his wisdom and knowledge. 
Pie taught, I learned. He led, I followed. He 
shone, I was enlighted. He imparted truth, and I 
imbibed it. The scholar or disciple in every school 
is a believer, and when he ceases to be so he ceases 
to learn; he becomes a reasoner, and meets his for- 
mer teacher on equal ground. But what disciple 
of the Lord Jesus can ever learn enough, even in 
his school, to equal him in wisdom? 

Imputed truth or righteousness, as we take it, will 



JUSTFYING FAITH. 167 

find few if any advocates. To be wise in Christ, 
without deriving any knowledge from him into our 
own minds ; or in other words, to have all our 
knowledge in our bibles, will leave our minds but 
a blank of ignorance. Too many occasions must 
needs occur to expose the fallacy of such a notion 
of knowledge, to admit of its being cherished long, 
even by prejudice itself. Faith in Jesus as a teach- 
er, without the docility of a learner, is dead. Faith 
in a bible whose contents remain unknown, is dead. 
Such believers are not justified of God. As learners, 
would not his justice oppose their justification? 
Dead faith cannot surely claim of justice the same 
award as living faith. Nor can he who enters into 
a school to reason or dispute, expect to bring away 
the same amount of knowledge or learning as he 
who enters and continues in it, in full confidence of 
his teacher's talents. The active righteousness of 
Christ, so called, that is his personal obedience to 
the law of Moses, or as it is expressed, — his being- 
made under the law, is said expressly to have 
been intended, that he might redeem them that are 
under the law, that is the Jews, as in fact the Gen- 
tiles were never under the ceremonial and sacrifi- 
cial law of Moses. Now if the obedience of the 
Messiah to this law is imputed, it would only be to 
the Jews, Avho alone could be under its curse. 
This distinction is clearly made and fully argued in 
the Epistle to the Romans. Now the moral righ 
teousness, that is the moral rectitude of his nature 



168 DISCOURSE SEVENTH. 

and spotless purity of life, as the holy, harmless and 
undefiled One, separate from sinners, made him a 
suitable high priest for us sinners, — the just for the 
unjust. But in so far as believers partake of this 
holy nature, they derive it by sanctiflcation, or be 
ing' made holy. 

The Jews and the Gentiles, to whom the gospel 
was first preached, were familiar with the ideas of 
vicarious sacrifices. The remission of sins that are 
past, by the merit of blood, was associated by some 
analogy, with every sacrificial altar ; and every 
Greek and Roman country abounded with altars 
and priests and sacrifices for sins. The peculiarity 
of the gospel, when it was first preached, did not 
consist in the doctrine of vicarious sacrifices, but in 
teaching " that God set forth his Son to be the pro- 
pitiation through faith in his blood, through his for- 
bearance for the remission of sins that are passed." 
It was, in declaring at that time, his righteousness. 
But when those hearers had heard and known 
enough of this distinguishing doctrine of redemp- 
tion through the blood, the bloody death of Christ 
upon the cross, and had faith enough in it to obtain - 
the remission of their sins that were passed, they 
were only beginners in the school of Christ. These 
blessed truths were not indeed ever to be unlearned 
or forgotten ; they were foundation truths, upon 
which the whole superstructure of knowledge and 
experience was to be built ; but they were not the 
middle nor the end, — " not as though I had ai- 



JUSTIFYING FAITH. 169 

ready attained, or were already perfect." By ceas- 
ing to learn, by refusing instruction, by learning to 
their own understanding, believers, when the time 
should arrive that they ought to be teachers of oth- 
ers, might have needed that some one should teach 
them again, which be the first principles of the doc- 
trine of Christ, — having become such as have need 
of milk and not of strong meat — as babes, who are 
unskilled in the word of righteousness. The pro- 
gress or growth in knowledge is not sinful, though 
it be imperfect, for it is of faith. It is not the proud 
contentions of reason, not the exalting of the un- 
sanctified and vain imagination above that which 
is written ; but the ignorant, though humble and 
teachable mind, sitting at the feet of Jesus. Igno- 
rance and error, which remain after such humble 
attempts and dutiful endeavors, such reliance on 
the name of the Lord Jesus, have not the spirit of 
disobedience. They are placed to the account of 
a nature which by sin had come short of the glory 
of God, but now bears a new covenant-relation to 
God, through the redeeming merit of the Mediator. 
But though neither perfect knowledge nor per- 
fect goodness can be derived unto minds or souls 
dwelling in mortal bodies, yet true knowledge may 
be derived, and also true goodness ; both may be 
of the right kind. " Work out }^our own salvation 
with fear and trembling, for it is God who worketh 
in you, both to will and to do, of his own good 
pleasure." " Herein is my Father glorified, that 
15 



170 DISCOURSE SEVENTH. 

ye bring forth much fruit." " Be ye holy, for I 
am holy." " Walk worthy of the vocation where- 
with ye are called." It will be difficult to open 
the New Testament, without finding some proof 
or argument going to show that its author intended, 
by the plan of redemption, to produce the greatest 
amount of wisdom and goodness in believers, thro' 
its instrumentality, consistent with the effects of 
Mien nature, or the mortal bodies which are only 
to be finally made new at the resurrection from the 
dead. If it were possible for an unbeliever to equal, 
or come to excel in wisdom and goodness, the most 
holy believer, his wisdom and goodness being pre- 
sented before God, as they must be, without the 
name and the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ, he 
could not be justified consistently with justice, un- 
less they came up to the standard of the law of in- 
nocence. There are but two ways of satisfying the 
justice of God — first, to fulfil the law of innocence 
or sinless obedience, and, secondly, faith in Jesus. 
It behooves unbelievers, who reject the gospel, 
to look to the consequences. If they will not have 
the new covenant, made through a mediator, will 
they have no covenant at all? Or, will they claim 
the old covenant, with its absolute law — u In the 
day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die?" It 
is not for dependent creatures to prescribe condi- 
tions to their Maker, or establish covenants with 
him, or to claim exceptions to general principles in 
iheir own behalf. " We must all appear before 



JUSTIFYING FAITH. 



171 



the judgment seat of Christ." If we might possi- 
bly have our own choice under what law we shall 
be tried and judged, it would surely be as much as 
we could reasonably require. But how can any 
man suppose that the decisions of divine justice 
will be the same, with and without a mediator, 
with and without redemption, or with and without 
faith. 

Now, the doctrine of imputed righteousness, if it 
were made only to bear on the remission of sins 
that are passed, and not to supersede future obedi- 
ence of faith, or the pergonal holiness of believers, 
might, perhaps, be used, technically, as a mode of 
expressing the justifying merits of the Redeemer. 
But the history of theology shows, that in almost 
every age and in every church, it has been so ccn- 
strued, as, by hypothesis, to supersede the necessity 
of experimental and practical religion. Not only 
controversial writings, but books on duty and devo- 
tion, are often found to abound with opinions and 
sentiments which confound the best of men and the 
best of Avorks, with the worst, in such a manner as 
to furnish arguments by which certain persons have 
fearlessly maintained that all believers are equally 
complete in Christ. Examples of these kinds have 
been so numerous as to induce a class of writers to 
maintain that the theory of imputed righteousness 
naturally leads to antinomian consequences, or " to 
the making void the law through faith." The fact, 
however, is undeniable, that this opinion has spread 



172 DISCOURSE SEVENTH. 

and prevailed, at certain times, to a most injurious 
extent, and seemed as if, in defiance of Scripture, 
it would turn the grace of God into wantonness. 
One has said — let a theory be given to indulge the 
passions and the appetites, and human nature will take 
it. But it is founi that such a state of things cannot 
last long without a reaction. Great practical errors 
lead to their own detection, when mind is left free. 
Our own times seem to premise better things. The 
friends of the doctrine of imputed righteousness 
seem now determined to take the lead of those who 
favor inherent as well as derived righteousness, in 
experience and in personal obedience. Their 
praise begins to be spoken of in all the churches. 
Do they mean to prove that it was the abuse and 
not the use of the opinion which caused the scan- 
dal? Or has the zeal of the friends of derived 
righteousness technically provoked them to jeal- 
ousy? Charity hopeth all things — but fear still 
whispers that effects have been too general to hope 
for much from past or limited causes ! 

We have adopted the expression derivative righ- 
teousness, in place of the expression imputed or in- 
herent righteousness, to avoid old associations, so 
common in controversy. " Now the fruits of the 
spirit are manifest, which are these, — not imputed 
or inherent fruits. Experimental religion must ne- 
cessarily be personal. The spirit is not imputed 
but imparted. " If ye being evil know how to give 
good gifts unto your children, how much more will 



JUSTIFYING FAITH. 173 

your heavenly father give the holy spirit to them 
that ask him ?" Love, joy, peace, meekness, gentle- 
nesss, patience long-suffering are all in us, and not 
reckoned or imputed as things without us. When 
a man hates, love cannot be conceived of as imput- 
ed to him. The joys of another can minister no re- 
lief to our griefs. The manner in which imputa- 
tion is sometimes spoken of, and the consequences 
deduced from it, can hardly be reconciled with per- 
sonal identity. " The love of God," says St. Paul, 
" is shed abroad in our hearts, by the Holy Spirit, 
which is given to us." It is remarkable that when 
faith is spoken of as connected with our redemption 
or salvation, none of the graces of the Holy Spirit, no 
personal virtues, not even love itself, are made the 
object. Is it not said, — believe in the love of God 
and thou shalt be saved, or believe on or in the 
righteousness of Christ, and it shall be imputed un- 
to thee. The blood or the bloody sacrifice of Christ 
is the object of justifying faith,—" in whom we have 
redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness 
of sins." 

We have had occasion to remark once and again 
that a redemption price does not, as a general prin- 
ciple, appear to be required in kind, as in the lex 
talionis ; an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. 
This lex, law, was penal, not sacrificial. The blood 
of the victims, which was offered at the altar, seem- 
ed to bear no relation to the nature of their sins, for 
which it made atonement. The Messiah tastes 
15* 



174 DISCOURSE SEVENTH. 

death for every man, and the common sentence,— is 
" the soul that sinneth it shall die." One sin merits 
death in the eye of the law. Laws cannot be made 
to punish the repeated sin, and not the first sin, 
without encouraging the number of sins less by one 
than the number specified. If the law, for instance, 
should enact that he who shall kill ten men, should 
be hung, nine might be killed with impunity. 

Sanctiflcation is by faith. As a medium for the 
derivation of wisdom, righteousness, sanctiflcation, 
and redemption, it is difficult to conceive any means 
more suitable than faith. Its very name excludes 
all self-sufficiency. Its aspects and actions are those 
of dependence. It cannot take on a single mode of 
merit. It cannot stand alone. With nothing to 
believe, it becomes nothing ; but as a receiver and 
a conveyer, it is adequate to the conveyance of every 
kind of gift to be transmitted through it. Between 
the giver of every good and perfect gift, and the 
humble, needy, suppliant sinner, it can transmit all 
things without appropriating any thing to itself. It 
looks to Jesus as its author and its finisher. 

That thou can'st here forgive, 

Grant me to testify, 
And justified by faith to live, 

And in that faith to die. 

Works done by believers, or the work of faith, or 
the obedience of faith, are not regarded in the gos- 
pel as sinful, for the object of the Redeemer was to 



JUSTIFYING FAITH. 175 

purify unto himself a people zealous of good works. 
The day of final judgment was in the divine mind 
or intention, to speak after the manner of men, in 
the very plan and work of redemption, and of 
course the principle of justice must have entered 
into the plan. He will judge the world in right- 
eousness and the people with equity. Now what 
is the idea of the Antinomian respecting the nature 
of the justice to be adjudged in the day of judg- 
ment ? Is it that no righteousness can pass that 
ordeal, but the righteous acts of Jesus Christ, im- 
puted to believers ? But to prove this to be the 
scriptural doctrine of the justice of God, must not 
hundreds of texts not only be explained away, but set 
aside ? Not so in regard to derived righteousness. 
Though it all flowed from Jesus Christ as from a 
fountain, it becomes the believer's own by experi- 
ence and practice; it is in his affections and in his will. 
He loves it as a— " good will doing service." 

The declaration is, — they that have done good, 
shall enter into life. " Well done, thou good and 
faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord!" 

There is, indeed, an imputation, very different 
from the one commonly received. " In as much 
as you have done it, ye have done it nnto mo." So 
a cup of cold water, given to one in the name of 
a disciple, shall not lose its reward. Instead of the 
imputation by the Judge of his own acts of benevo- 
lence and humanity to the believers, he regards 
them as clone by believers unto himself, 



176 DISCOURSE SEVENTH. 

All are, — "justified freely by his grace, through 
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." Jews and 
Gentiles are considered as sinners in the sight of God, 
and a common redemption is provided for them. — 
Christ Jesus is set forth, as a propitiation, as a mercy 
seat, as the reconciliation medium, asthe atonement 
through faith in his blood ,— " to declare his righteous- 
ness for the remission of sins that are past, through 
the forbearance of God," — to declare at this time, 
in this dispensation, this gracious gospel day of mer- 
cy and salvation, his righteousness. God, by set- 
ting forth Jesus Christ, his Son, as the all -sufficient, 
meritorious sacrifice, makes a declaration of his 
righteousness, demonstrates, that the throne of jus- 
tice is not displaced, to make way for the throne of 
mercy and grace. He hath ordained that th® redeem- 
er and Saviour of sinners should be the judge of 
the world. Now he forbears, now he is long-suffer- 
ing, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving in- 
iquity, transgression and sin, and keeping mercy for 
thousands; but. then, when he comes to judgment, 
he will by no means clear the guilty. He must be 
just while he justifies those who believe in Jesus. 
He, — " will render to every man according to his 
deeds : to them, who by patient continuance in well- 
doing, seek for glory and honor and immortality, 
eternal life : but unto them that are contentious and 
do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, in- 
dignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon 
every soul cf man, that doeth evil, of the Jew first 



JUSTIFYING FAITH. 177 

and also of the Gentile ; but glory honor and peace 
to every man, that worketh good, to the Jew first 
and also to the Gentile ; for there is no respect of 
persons with God." 

Cincinnati, January, 1838. 



DISCOURSE EIGHTH. 



THE CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 



For our rejoicing is this the testimony of our conscience, that in 
simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the 
grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world ; and 
more abundantly to you-ward. 

II. Corinthians i. 12. 

Happiness cannot exist without self-consistency, 
and self-consistency is attested by the conscience. — 
Not only peace may flow from ihe testimony of 
a good conscience, but joy or rejoicing, that is, an 
active state of happiness. The Scriptures speak of 
rejoicing in God, of rejoicing in the Lord always, of 
rejoicing for having now received the atonement, of 
rejoicing with joy unspeakable and full of glory, and 
in the text, of rejoicing in the testimony of a good 
conscience. These causes of joy must be in har- 
mony with each other, and the failure of the latter 
would derange the rest. A good conscience is a 
creditable witness of simplicity and godly sincerity. 
If it testify of their defects and failures, self-displa- 
cency must follow. 

The Apostle was a new convert to anew religion 
from an old religion. He made no secret of his 
happiness in his new religion. But how could these 
professions be admitted by the professors of the old 



THE CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. 179 

religion ? How could they admit that he was nei- 
ther deceived himself, nor meant to deceive others? 
Could they consistently do otherwise than conclude, 
that he had forsaken all the true means of happiness, 
and of course that he was miserable being governed 
by fleshly wisdom ? St. Paul evidently means to 
meet an objection by the phrase, — "not with flesh- 
ly wisdom, but by the grace of God." This Saul 
of Tarsus, — would not the Jews say ? — this disciple 
of Gamaliel, this Pharisee so conspicuous for 'his 
zeal in favor of the law and apparent sincerity has 
renounced the legal sacrifices and is teaching a 
doctrine subversive of all their merit ; and yet he re- 
joices, he proclaims that he has found a happy reli- 
gion but it cannot be so, it must be all self-delusion 
or hypocrisy. Not so, — he seems to say, — this is 
not hypocrisy nor is our joy hypothetical ; it is not 
inferred from causes wholly without ourselves, it is 
not from a bad conscience, not from a confused 
or disordered state of mind nor is it to be traced 
to selfish or political calculations. We are not only 
simple, identical in our intentions and piously sin- 
cere, but our conversation in the world and in the 
church is sustained and regulated by the grace of 
God, instead of legal ceremonies. 

The point of doctrine in the text is, how a man 
who forsakes an old religion and embraces a new 
religion, is to form and sustain his character. There 
is a common-place anecdote which need not have 
been true to give it an application. The story is, 



180 DISCOURSE EIGHTH. 

that a man of an old church went to a man of a new 
church. The latter when questioned by the former 
spoke in high admiration of the prayers of his church. 
The questioner affirmed, thai they were all stolen 
from his church. Then, — replied the man of the 
new church, — like other thieves we have taken the 
best. This reply did not obviate the charge of 
theft, nor by the way lessen the offence if it did not 
aggravate it. What is taken from an old church 
J nto a new one or with a view to form a new one, 
will not be yielded as common property. The evi» 
dence of this would appear in argument, if it should 
be supposed that the Apostles had transferred the sa- 
sacrifices of the ancient law into the new Christian 
church without the consent of the Jewish authorities. 
Woul 1 not the proceeding have been regarded as 
unlawful and outrageous ? In fact, this principle i3 
general if not universal. All denominations are 
disposed to make the peculiarities of their religion 
exclusive ; some in one way and in some another. 
The pertinacity about their rights and the divine 
right of ordination is known to every body. The 
essence of the sin of non-conformity is considered 
to be in transgressing authority ; the non-conformity 
is the sign of disobedience, though the spirit of dis- 
obedience would still be condemned without the 
sign. Churches are not willing that church char 
acter should be taken out from them. With the ques- 
tion of light and wrong we do not meddle : but the 
things that have been will probably be hereafter 



THE CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. 181 

Leaving then the subject of property or the right of 
churches to their own forms and names and usages, 
the grace of God still remains as a basis for a chris- 
tian and a ministerial character. " By the grace of 
God, we have had our conversation in the world and 
more abundantly to you- ward." We rejoice in the 
cause and in the consequence. " Our rejoicing is 
this, the testimony of our conscience." We have 
rejoicing in ourselves and not in another. We have 
a tribunal in our own bosom, and if conscience be 
not judge it is a witness. We rejoice that the grace 
of God is as free as it is efficacious. By it we live 
holy in the world ; but more holy still in the church. 
But what is this grace of God ? How is it to b* 
defined ? The primary meaning of the word grac» 
is favor, or the sign of a favor, a gift." By grace 
are ye saved, — it is the gift of God." " Ye know 
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, how that though 
he was rich he became poor, that ye through his pov- 
erty might be made rich." The grace of God and 
faith can never be secularized, — if one may use the 
word. The identify of the believer can never be 
lost in a partnership. No doctrine is more fully es- 
tablished, than that of the individual accountability 
of every man before the judgment seat of Christ. — 
The Jewish church was in several respects a politi- 
cal body. Their principal sacrifice was national. 
But the unspeakable gift of God's only begotten Son 
and the grace that came by him, the spirit of grace 
with which believers are baptized, and the gift of 
16 



182 DISCOURSE EIGHTH. 

eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord were not 
exclusive property of the Jewish Church nor of any 
man or body of men. " In Christ Jesus there is 
neither Jew nor Greek, barbarian nor Scythian, 
bond nor free, male nor female ;" — all distinc- 
tions are lost in that of believer. The notion 
of the false prophet who cried out, — " Which 
way went the spirit of the Lord from me to you?" 
Can have no foundation in the gospel. The spirit 
of grace is not transmitted from man to man, but 
from the head of the church to every one that be- 
lieveth. The church is not the object of faith, but 
the Lord Jesus Christ. '• We believe " says St. 
Peter, " that through the grace of our Lord Jesus 
Christ we shall be saved, even as they." 

The Apostles were not indebted to the law of 
sacrificial and ceremonial works. The new Chris- 
tian dispensation took nothing of this kind from the 
old Jewish dispensation which was ready to van- 
ish away. " If any man be in Christ Jesus, he is 
a new creature; old thing are past away." " Be- 
hold ! all things are become new and all things are 
of Christ who is head over all things unto the 
church." " In him all fulness dwells." There 
was no mistake, no deception, no hypocrisy in those 
Jews whom the Messiah sent forth to preach the 
gospel. The grace of God was sufficient for them. 
By the grace of God they were what they were. 
This grace wrought effectually in them to the Apos- 
tleship. They had the witness in themselves of the 



THE CHRISTIAN - CHARACTER. IS':, 

• 

efficacy of this grace in the world and in their reli- 
gious fellowship. 

Every Christian and Minister must have inter- 
course with the world and with the church. "I 
wrote unto you, not to J^eep company with the men 
of this world, yet not altogether of this world, for 
then ye must needs go out of the world. But con- 
cerning brotherly love, I have no need to write un- 
to you, for ye are taught of God to love one ano- 
ther." Duty may call us unto the world, but 
choice as well as duty call us into the church. 
' ■ We have had our conversation in the world, but 
more abundantly to you-ward" Always pure in 
intention and always piously sincere let us be, whe- 
ther the men with whom we converse be bad or 
good, pious or profane. Between the sincere Jew 
and the sincere Christian, there was opportunity for 
fleshly wisdom. Between the professors of an old 
religion and a new one, there are many occasions 
for temptation or for offence, for there is great scopa 
for hopes and fears. Faith in principles and mo j 
ral integrity is severely tested by the artifices of lo- 
gic and the uncertainty of results. And in propor- 
tion to difficulties and dangers are the joys of suc- 
cess and the rejoicing in the causes of success. To 
be sustained in this world, this world of sin and 
folly, this cruel and persecuting world by the grace 
of God ; to be able to take a good conscience with 
us from an intercourse with a world of trials and 
crosses into the society of a new brotherhood ; 



184 DISCOURSE EIGHTH. 

in that brotherhood f.o find the testimony of the 
conscience strengthened in the sufficiency of the 
grace of God, are causes of rejoicing indeed. Every 
person who is fully persuaded that it is a duty to 
submit to an expulsion for conscience sake, or to 
change his religious fellowship from one denomi- 
nation to another, must so count the cost as to place 
his sole reliance upon the grace of God to ensure 
success, otherwise, there will be great danger of be- 
ing betrayed into fleshly wisdom in some form or 
degree. Simplicity and godly sincerity will be be- 
trayed or defeated, if fleshly wisdom is made auxi- 
liary to them. It is a deceitful alliance. This ac- 
counts for the constant and earnest manner, in 
which the author and founder of Christianity presses 
upon his disciples the necessity of forsaking all to 
follow him. He knew what was in man, for he 
knew the hearts of all men. But human feelings 
are alike under like excitements. All kinds of er- 
ror as well as truths reduce themselves into system 
in the mind ; and the minds that sustain them be- 
come tenacious of the parts and all the ends and 
conclusions. These apostilic servants fully verified 
the Uuth of their Master's presence. " These 
things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not 
be offended." " They shall put you out of the 
synagogues, yea, the time cometh that whosoever 
killeth you, will think that he doeth God service." 
New denominations may arise and small and feeble 
onea may revive much faster by the wisdom of 



THE CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. I 

the flesh than by the grace of God ; but the faster 
ihey are made to rise by this means the more may 
their simplicity and godly sincerity be encroached 
upon. The grace of God does nothing contrary to 
the testimony of a good conscince. Grace crowns 
none but honest means with final success ; and in 
a new and weak society dishonest means can hardly 
be concealed. Flattery of pride, gratification of 
self-interest, and the indulgence of deceitful passions, 
are facilitated by the accumulation of numbers, 
wealth, and power and old establishment. Must 
not the grace of God do every thing for those who 
have for its sake suffered the loss of all things ? 
Must it not be to them wisdom, strength, motive, 
comfort ? When good men renounce the causes of 
the success of bad men, it is not to be supposed that 
they can succeed without any causes. Truth the 
foundation truth of- all religion, is God's truth, and 
those who engage in it can consistently look to God 
for help in time of need. Out of his fulness have 
•*ve all received, and grace to answer grace. Ail 
the holy or virtuous qualities which compose a 
good man's character are graces or fruits of the Ho- 
ly Spirit. 

The questions between the Apostles and their 
countrymen respecting the Messiahship, were first, 
the person, secondly, the offices. Some of the Jews 
agreed that Jesus was the Christ, but rejected his 
priestly office, and so did not rely wholly upon the 
grace of God, They did not let all the old tilings 
16* 



186 DISCOURSE EIGHTH, 

pass away. Now if the Apostles were right in af- 
firming that the old things had passed away, they 
were right in the conclusion that all things had 
become new and that all things were of Christ Je- 
sus. The simplicity of this plan in comparison 
with the half old and half-new one 5 is very obvious. 
The whole of the priestly office and all the real 
merit of sacrifice are thus in the Messiah, and the 
mortal priesthood of the sons of Aaron ceases. 

A conversation in the world involves men who 
have deviated from established religious systems and 
usages in his controversy. The Apostles like their 
Lord had to endure the contradictions of the men of 
the world against themselves. Their was much 
disputing about their conduct, not in one place only 
but in almost every place where the Apostles came. 
The offence they gave was, that they would not 
hold their peace, but would speak and spare not. 
They would converse upon the subject of their mis- 
sion in the world ; converse first with the Jews and 
if they refused to hear then turn to the Gentiles. 
Their conversation in this world was with men 
whose prejudices and passions were in a state of ex- 
citement. Hence it is probable the term conversa- 
tion is used not merely as meaning a pari of but 
the whole of the moral deportment ; for it seems 
probable, that if their ministerial duty had not made 
it necessary they would have been apt to shun the 
contradictors and blasphemers of their doctrines. 
The account of St. Paul's ministry in the Act3 of 



THE CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. 1ST 

Apostles and the references to it in his letters, show 
that if his doctrinal controversies had not brought 
him in contact with the world his intercourse with 
it would have been but limited. This high state 
of public excitement and emotion, however, became 
a severe test of temper and disposition. How nu- 
merous and powerful the temptations in such con- 
flicts to speak unadvisedly with the lips ! What 
provocation to render railing for railing ! And how 
sudden the promptness of the feelings ! We have 
had our conversation in the world, but not with 
fleshly wisdom. With this we were opposed. Our 
opponents were subtle, acute, and argumentative ; 
and their genius cultivated by art was stimulated by 
fleshly or animal propensities. In our conversation 
in the world we have renounced the hidden things 
of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness. Contro- 
versy may have features and movements in common 
with war. The shame of defeat, the glory of suc- 
cess cannot be wholly excluded from the mind in 
the strife of words. Words may inflict most pain- 
ful sensations. Religious disputes above all others 
are proverbial for rendering the feelings irascible 
and rousing the malevolent passions. The grace of 
God is the only corrective to these demoralizing 
tendencies. When two parties equally influenced 
by fleshly wisdom enter into religious disputation ; 
in the absence of restraining grace, nothing but ne- 
cessity can prevent them from proceeding to vio- 
lence ; if not in words and actions at least in feeling, 



*S3 



DISCOURSE EIGHTH 



Those men in the world who disputed with St« 
Paul, when all their controversial sources failed, 
left no means unessayed to take his life. He re- 
joiced that the grace of God restrained him from the 
dreadful spirit of retaliation, and enabled him to re- 
turn good for evil, blessing for cursing, and to pray 
for them who despiteful!}' used him. 

" Brethren," says he, " my heart's desire and 
prayer to God for Israel (for that Israel who seeks 
my life, as they did the life of Elijah) is, that ihey 
may be saved !" But however efficacious the grace 
of God may be, in enabling us to sustain the con- 
tradiction of sinners, it is or may be more abund- 
antly so in our conversation toward the church. 
The letters of St. Paul to the churches seem to an- 
swer to- the phrase, — -and more abundantly to you- 
ivard. No matter how remote from the churches, 
no matter how great his perils or his labors, though 
pressed out of measure and despairing of life, he 
could not forbear writing to the brethren. When 
absent from theirij he desired, he longed to see 
them. His heart overflows in their mutual saluta- 
tions. The churches were his home like his fa- 
ther's house, were the habitation of his brethren. 
" Whether I come and see you," said he, " or hear 
of your affairs, that ye stand, fast in the Lord." By 
the grace of God, his brotherly love not only con- 
tinued but abounded yet more and more. He con- 
versed with them when absent by letter, when pre- 
sent face to face, not with fleshly wisdom. " Ye 



THE CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. 189 

are witnesses and God also, how holily and justly 
and unblamably we behaved ourselves among you 
that believe. As ye know, how we exhorted and 
comforted everyone of you as a father doth his chil- 
dren, that ye walk worthy of God who hath called 
us unto his kingdom and glory." 

It may be regretted, that Apostles and friends of 
religious changes and reforms have had to devote so 
large a portion of their time and talents to contro- 
versy ; but the nature of the case and the nature of 
man seem to render it unavoidable. The greater 
the truths contended for, and the greater the 
errors opposed, the greater it may be presumed 
will he the struggle of the parties immediately en- 
gaged in the controversy. The matter in dispute 
between the Apostles and the Sanhedrim, were not 
mere trifles or forms or points of opinion which min- 
ister to nothing good or great. The greatest and 
longest continued of all religious controversies was, 
and is, that between idolatry and the worship of the 
living and true God. Theism and Atheism have 
not given rise to so much dispute. Christian- 
ity at every step had to contend with Judaism, and 
even now all the questions are not settled. Politi- 
cal agreements between fellow citizens bring them 
no nearer together on points of religious difference. 
The elements of strife among professors of Christi- 
anity are still in activity. And the common and al- 
most unavoidable conclusion of the observer is, that 
the opposite and opposing opinions cannot be all 



190 DISCOURSE EIGHTH. 

right. But there are few if any among the present 
reviewers of history, who now maintain that truth 
was and is always on the side of the oldest, and er- 
ror on the side of the newest of the polemical par- 
ties. But it iimy be safely laid down as a position, 
that the grace of God is always on the side of truth. 
On this position the conclusion is rested that the 
grace of God sustained the Apostles. The old Jew- 
ish opinions were wrong. The opinions of the new 
disciples of Jesus were right. These men under- 
stood and maintained the truth : grace therefore 
was with them and they were conscious of it and 
conscious that they had done nothing to forfeit 
it. Have the friends of reforms in principle or 
in practice had good and sufficient reason to believe, 
that they have truth on their side ? Then they might 
well confide in the grace of God, and maintain sim- 
plicity and godly sincerity in their converse in the 
world and more abundantly in the church, and have 
joy and rejoicing in themselves and not in another. 
So long as men are subject to the prejudices and 
passions, which according to history have been com- 
mon in all religious controversy, it may be assumed 
that whoever attempts to form a new religious fel- 
lowship, will have to form a religious character anew 
pud in immediate relation to the principles of the 
new system. But the resources of the parti 
solve themselves into only two genera, namely, — 
fleshly wisdom and the grace God. And in vain 
shall the attempt be made to unite them or to com- 



THE CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. 191 

bine them into one ; and the attempt would be as 
useless as vain could it succeed. Grace itself is all- 
sufficient. " My grace is sufficient for thee/ 5 — is 
the common warrant and security of every friend 
and champion of the truth. " We have access into 
this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of 
the glory of God." In every age and country in 
which men have been persecuted for the cause of 
truth, the Grace of God has brought from the fur- 
nace characters like gold tried in the fire. Men 
who borrowed nothing from, owed nothing to their 
persecutors ; and their persecutors could claim no- 
thing from them. Let men begin at what point 
they may or in what maner they may, to oppose an 
error or a vice of long standing reduced to a system 
and confirmed by habit, if they finally succeed in 
producing a real change, they will be driven if not 
suddenly and immediately yet by degrees to take 
new and independent ground. St. Paul's conver- 
sion was as complete as it was sudden. He con- 
sulted not with flesh and blood, but began at once 
to preach Christ. He saw at once into the nature 
of the work and the whole of the difficulties, and he 
did not take ground from which he should be com- 
pelled to retreat step by step, or be defeated in at- 
tempting to maintain it. In the eleventh chapter 
of his Epistle to the Romans he contrasts the two 
principles, — the one he embraced and the one he 
opposed. " If by grace, then it is no more of works ; 
otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of 



192 DISCOURSE EIGHTH. 

works, then it is no more of grace ; otherwise work 
is no more work. " It was impossible to reconcile 
the gracious sacrifice and the sacrificial works. — 
" Not by sacrificial works of righteousness which 
we have done, but according to his own mercy he 
saved us ; by the washing of regeneration and the 
renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us 
abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, that 
being justified by his grace we should be made heirs 
according to the hope of eternal life." 

a Our rejoicing is this," — says the Apostle ; so, he 
was happy. The friends and supporters of old and 
established systems are happy, and of course are apt 
to suppose that all those whom they regard as inno- 
vators upon those systems, must needs be unhappy 
by depriving themselves of their common sources of 
happiness 5 and the conclusion would be correct on 
their own supposition that the innovators have lost 
truth instead of finding it. Now, human enjoy- 
ments in these changes are not absolute, but rela- 
tive and conditional. Paul was once happy in the 
services of te altar ; but when he found another al- 
tar, the offerings of which those who continued to 
serve in the old tabernacle had no right to eat, he 
could dispense with his former enjoyments as an 
exchange for greater ones. In going forth without 
the gate after the crucifixion and bearing his re- 
proach, we hear him exclaiming, — " God forbid 
that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord 
Jesus Christ!" Happiness in changes of religion 



THE CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. 193 

principles or practices should have truth for its basis, 
and a consciousness of maintaining it in a manner ac- 
ceptable to God. Between God and the heart eve- 
ry thing should be conducted with the utmost sin- 
cerity. Zeal for tiuth, however commendable in 
itself is no compensation for the loss of sincerity. 
Success may and generally does produce joy, but the 
cause of joy may be in the success alone without 
any regard to truth or error. Disappointment and 
defeat are natural causes of regret and sorrow. Flesh- 
ly "wisdom is inventive of sources and means of pleas- 
urable emotions. Cunning and wit pander to mirth 
and laughter. Men are pleased or take pleasure in 
doing whatever they love to do. They who re- 
joice with fleshly wisdom love all its promptness, 
all the artifices of the mind ; and all animal propen- 
sities when indulged quickly and strongly excite 
pleasurable emotions. This wisdom (falsely so 
called) is loved on account of the ease and readiness 
with which it gains its ends or comes to its conclu- 
sions, and gives or receives pleasure. Simplicity or 
oneness of design is no part of the arrangement of 
fleshly wisdom, and never limits it in the choice of 
its means. This wisdom reflects not upon the 
past, anticipates not the future, but seeks to satisfy 
itself with the present. As regulating and directing 
causes of conversation in this world, the contrasts 
between fleshly wisdom and the grace of God are 
extreme. The one is the source of all depravity 
of manners, and the other of all the decencies and 
17 



194 DISCOURSE EIGHTH. 

proprieties of life. " Let no corrupt communica- 
tion proceed out of your mouth, but such as is good 
for the use of edifying. Let your conversation be 
seasoned with salt/ and be such as may minister 
grace to the hearers. Now the works of the flesh 
are manifest, which are these/' &c. 

But the more abundant religious joys of the re- 
formers are realized in the church, in the society of 
the converts and friends who also have the testimo- 
ny of a good conscience, of simplicity and godly 
sincerity. A conversation in the world cannot be 
sustained by any solitary individual, without some 
one or more with whom to interchange mutual sym- 
pathies. The first missionaries were sent out two 
and two ; but they were to return to their sender 
and meet each other in his presence as in a home. 
When missionaries were recommended to the grace 
of God for any special work, they generally re- 
turned to those who thus prayed for them. Paul 
never planted a church which he did not de- 
sire or endeavor to revisit. The world is too migh- 
ty for any single champion of the gospel to contend 
against alone. It is a true saying,— we must find 
Christians or make them. 

The importance of religious fellowship to the suc- 
cess of the gospel, or the restoration and support of 
its particular truths, is well understood by the ene- 
mies of religion, who have shown as much hostility 
to societies or churches as to preachers themselves. 
Of such importance were churches, that they were 



THE CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. 195 

organized in families, and even twos and threes 
composed them in the absence of greater numbers. 
The character of those who are regarded as singu- 
gular or peculiar for any thing above the common 
standard, are never safe without some friends in 
whom they may confide. No considerations of 
danger in times of great persecution, could induce 
the first ministers of Jesus Christ to refrain from 
•planting churches, as without them their labors 
must have been lost or rendered useless. The con- 
versation which might have convinced the gain- 
sayers would soon have been forgotten, had they to 
whom tho gospel was preached been left as unfold-* 
ed sheep, to wander without social intercourse with 
those of kindred thoughts and feelings. But friend- 
ship is happiness, and religion admits of the highest 
degree of happiness. This bane of friendship is 
selfishness and all the vices are selfish ; they all seek 
their own and not the things that are Jesas Christ's. 
The grace of God neither generates nor fosters a 
selfish spirit. There is enough for all, enough for 
each, enough for evermore. 

All the consolations of Christ, all the comforts of 
love, and all the fellowship of the Holy Spirit are 
free for all the members and ministers of the churches. 
In a newly formed church in a time of persecution 
composed of course out of the poorer classes of so- 
ciety, for in such times not many wise, not many 
rich and noble obey the call, — the happiness of 
Christian and Ministerial fellowship and friendship 



196 DISCOURSE EIGHTH. 

must be derived from spiritual influences. In such 
times of peril, when men's lives are in jeopardy 
every hour and the help of man proves utterly vain, 
sympathies in human sufferings, in the prospect of 
heaven, are at once delightful and sublime. Be- 
hold ! the parting scene ; " they fell on Paul's neck 
and kissed him sorowing most of all for the words 
which he spake, that they should see his face no 
more." Well might he say, — " and more abund- 
antly to you- ward." The best evidence of the 
truth and purity of a new church is to be found in 
the new church itself, when its ministers and mem- 
bers experience their greatest joy in their mutual 
fellowship, their greatest sorrow in parting. These 
are proofs that their love is pure, sincere and gra- 
cious. But if in a newly organized church of profess- 
ed reformers, the members find no happiness in 
their new relation or less than any where else, and 
its ministers find no fellow-feeling among them, 
there is reason to suspect that the root of the matter 
is not in them. What ! ministers of the gospel and 
members of churches, comparatively unhappy in 
each others' company ! How striking the contrast 
with those who were glad when the brethren said, 
" come, let us go up to the house of God together," 
and who found it good and ple?tsant to dwell toge- 
ther in unity ! According to their own showing, 
nothing was more contemptible and odious in the 
estimation of the world than the characters of the 
primitive Ministers and Christians ; and yet in each 



THE CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. l$f 

Others' society they gained a name which is worthy 
of emulation to the end of time. They compelled 
their enemies to say, — See how these Christians 
love one another ! Jesus formed his church and 
called men out of the world into it for the purpose 
of forming a Christian Character. To this end 
he gave them a new commandment,— that they 
should love one another. We lay it down as a 
general rule that all attempts to reform churches 
will be attended with little success, without a near 
conformity to the letter and spirit of this text* 
Cincinnati, January, 1838, 



11* 






DISCOURSE NINTH, 

TO KNOW JESUS CHRIST. 



But what tilings were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ: 
yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of 
the knowledge of JesUs Christ my Lord: for whom I have suffered 
the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win 
Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, 
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, 
the righteousness which is of God by faith : that t may know him, 
and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffer- 
ings, being made conformable unto his death j if by any means I 
might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. 

Philippians iii. 7 — 11. 

Among the Jews to whom the gospel was first 
preached there were two classes of believers, the 
one of whom believed in common with the other 
that Jesus was the Messiah, but still held that the 
legal sacrifices and all ancient forms of government 
and worship ought to be retained in his kingdom or 
church. Persons of this opinion are alluded to by 
St. James, when he said to Paul — " thou seest, 
brother, how many thousands of Jews there are that 
believe, and they are all zealous of the law." 
Those Judaizing preachers (so called) who made 
so much opposition to St. Paul, were of this num- 
ber; a particular account of whom and of their 
manner of teaching is given in the fifteenth chapter 
of the Acts of the Apostles. They came down 
from Judea to Antioch and taught the brethren ; — 



TO KNOW JESUS CHRIST. 199 

" Except ye be circumcised after the manner of 
Moses ye cannot be saved." " They finally be- 
came a separate denomination of Christians, and 
are known in history as Nazarites or Nazarine 
christians. In process of time their name was lost. 
Paul as the Apostle of the Gentiles or of the nncir- 
cumcision magnified his office, in asserting and 
maintaining that it was not necessary that the Gen- 
tiles should become Jews or be circumcised* in order 
to become Christians ■ consequently he argued and 
he proved that the legal sacrifices and the ancient 
forms of worship and government were repealed 
and superseded by the new dispensation of the 
Messiah. He was therefore not only opposed by 
the unbelieving Jews in common with the Apostles 
of the circumcision, but also by most of those who 
were zealous for the continuance of the law. This 
opposition was in many instances carried to the ut- 
most, degree of violence. Under this kind of double 
persecution he had suffered the loss of all things, 
but his privations and lossess did not exceed his 
purpose and fortitude. His opposers could take 
nothing from him, which he was not ready and 
willing to give. " What things were gain to me, 
those I counted but loss, before 1 lost them: yea 
doubtless, now that I have lost them, I not only 
still count them but loss, but I count all things 
but loss." This is an example of what he else- 
where describes in the words; — " ye took joyfully 
the spoiling of your goods." Losses that we have 



200 Bfg'CfotfRStf m is* Til * 

anticipated, that we are willing to suffer, that w$ 
experience with resignation and even with joy, 
cease in effect to be losses. But how is it probable 
to arrive at this state of mind? The answer is in 
the text;-^for Christ; for the excellency of the 
knowledge of Christ ; that I may win Christ ; that 
I may be found in him, with the righteousness 
which is through the faith of Christ ; that I may 
know him and the power of his resurrection ; and 
that I may attain unto the resurrection of the dead 
The prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem is- 
not, as is some times supposed, merely to be regarded 
as an example of the truth of prophecy. It had a spe- 
cial bearing upon the point of doctrine at issue in this 
controversy. If this catastrophe were to take place 
at the time and in the manner and to the extend 
foretold, how was it possible that the law could be 
perpetuated in the church or kingdom of the Mes- 
siah? With the loss of their country, of their tem- 
ple, and the loss of the last vestige of political 
existence, must not that low which in the opinion? 
of all pointecf to Jerusalem and to the temple, bo 
rendered impracticable in its highest and holiest re- 
quirements? With the destruction of that holy 
place and holy house and holy altar, how could (he- 
high priest enter, the holy of holies and approach 
the mercy-seat and offer the great annual and na* 
tional expiation? How different the conviction of 
Paul and those who like him counted all things but 
loss, if any among them survived the destruction of 



TO KKOW JESUS CHRIST. 201 

the city and temple, from the condition of those be- 
lievers who were zealous of the law and also sur- 
vived those ruins! Both parties must have been 
losers of all things. The high-priest could no more 
approach to the mercy seat for the one than for the 
other. Behold the difference; — the one antici- 
pated and counted upon them and submitted to 
them willingly, — the other surprised and confound- 
ed was compelled to give up the dear objects of his 
confidence and hope without a substitute or com- 
pensalion ! The fulfilment of that memorable pro- 
phecy was like death which comes to all, but comes 
to those who are prepared or expecting it and to 
those who are not ready or willing to die, as wel- 
come or terrible. There can be no doubt but that 
St. Paul perfectly understood and firmly believed 
all the predictions to the very letter, that not one 
stone should be left upon another of that edifice 
once so holy and so sacred in his own eyes, and 
also in the eyes of his countrymen who believed 
that the services of that sanctuary made with hands 
would be continued forever under the reign of the 
Messiah. 

The prediction then of the loss or the whole Jew- 
ish polity, which was to be fulfiled before all who 
heard it should die and the exact fulfilment of 
which was witnessed, if there were no other evi- 
dence that it must be so, would confirm the belief 
that that polity must give place to a different one. 
T he minds of all who understood and believed the 



202 DISCOURSE NINTH. 

prediction, were prepared for the consequences. 
The inquiry of the disciples by associating the end 
of the world with the time of the prediction indi- 
cates, that their minds were still expecting that the 
Messiah would reign in Jerusalem until the end of 
the world. The dissolution of an ancient church 
and government is, next to great national convul- 
sions and revolutions, among the most interesting 
and affecting of events. And among those record- 
ed in history, few have been more destructive or more 
complete lhan that in this prediction. The despe- 
ration and the resistance of the leaders and the peo- 
ple drove matters to a frightful extremity. Nothing 
was more unlikely nor more unexpected to the Ro* 
mans, than that the province of India the smallest 
and least warlike in the empire should attempt a re- 
volt. But their protracted resistance exasperated 
the legions to the highest degree of vengeance. 
The orders of the commander-in-chief to spare the 
temple from the flames, were disregarded. From 
the seventieth year of our era, when the Romans 
thus took away the Jewish place and nation, to the 
present time, Jerusalem has been so trodden down 
by the Gentiles that it has been impossible to carry 
the sacrificial law into execution there. Thus is 
the providential seal of God set to the truth of St. 
Paul's doctrine and practice. And thus it appears 
that the opinion of those believers who were zeal- 
ous of the law, if true, would have involved impos- 
sibilities. " He taketh away the first (kind of sacri- 



TO KNOW JESUS CHRIST. 203 

fice) that he might establish the second (that is, the 
sacrifice of himself for us.)" Neither the Romans 
nor any earthly power can destroy the heavenly 
temple not made with hands, into which the great 
Mediatorial High Priest has entered with the merit 
of his own blood. The true Jewish believers are to 
be contemplated in a most interesting point of light. 
They counted upon and anticipated the end of the * 
old religious world or church, and the resurrection 
of a new church. How eventful the scenes ! When 
ye shall see them, and see the hearts of unbelievers 
failing them through fear, then lift up your heads, 
for your redemption draweth nigh. All that takes 
place will confirm the truth of my mission and of 
my doctrine, that I give my life a ransom for the 
multitudes. 

But let us follow the Apostle as he magnified the 
grace of God. " Yea doubtless, I count all things 
but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of 
Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered 
the loss of all things." To know Jesus Christ and 
him crucified as our lord, is knowledge by excel- 
lence. The reality of matter has been questioned 
in ancient and modern times, and the natural pow- 
er of vision has been compared to a picture. The 
world it is said is only in our eye ; hence the spec- 
ulations about material objects. But the knowledge 
of Christ Jesus my Lord is Christ in me, — the hope 
of glory. A child or an ignorant person sees a star. 
He knows it as a white shining spot at a great dis- 



204 DISCOURSE NINTH. 

tance off. His knowledge increases and he know® 
it to be a great globe of vast magnitude, at an im- 
measurable distance from him. The more a man 
knows of a star, the more distant he knows himself 
to be from it. But the more he knows of Jesus 
Christ, the more nearly he approaches to him until 
he becomes one in him. " I in }^ou, and you in me." 
We may know Jesus Christ our Lord in the flesh, 
through the history of him. We may know him 
as the Saviour or Deliverer who hath power on earth 
to forgive sins ; and we may know him as our Ruler 
and Judge as having all power in heaven and earth. 
In this progress of our knowledge we become more 
and more intimate with the subject of our know- 
ledge. He is in heaven; his kingdom is not of 
this world ; he is at the right hand of God. The 
excellency of this knowledge is, that it is in the 
form of faith ; the object comes to us by hearing 
and hearing by the word of God. It is best suited 
to our intellectual faculties, by being exhibited to 
them in the most intelligible form. We believe no- 
thing so firmly and steadily which is presented to 
our minds through any of our senses, as we do that 
which can be presented in the form of a proposition, 
in words so as to admit of an argument and a de- 
monstration of its truth. Experimental philosophy 
itself makes slow advances without logic. Excel- 
lent knowledge ! We can walk by it and live by 
it, and not by sight. We walk by faith and not by 
sight. " The just shall live by faith." Excellent 



i 






TO KNOW J E S S U S CHRIST. 205* 

Knowledge which brings us nearer and nearer to the 
truth, and our souls nearer to the author of the truth 
himself ! "I know in whom I have believed, and 
I am persuaded that he is able to keep unto that 
day that which 1 have committed unto him. " What 
is the knowledge of the legal sacrifices in compari- 
son to this ? Concerning them Paul was blameless, 
In regard to ceremonial religion he had lived in all 
good conscience before God. But the objects of 
this knowledge were all beyond himself; he neve 
could become one with them nor they with him, 
that they might be one. They were always ob- 
jects of sight or sense and not of faith and hope, 
for what a man seeth why doth he yet hope for ? — 
They were touched and tasted and handled and 
they perished in the using. 

The Apostle accounted all thing that were gain 
to him as dung, " so that he might win Christ and 
be found in him, not having his own righteousness 
which was of the law, but that which is through 
the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of 
God by faith. " The points of opposition are strongly 
marked, — gain, loss, win, find. To find one we 
must lose the ether or count it as lost. The righ 
teousness which was of the law, in all those peri 
sons who held or accounted that sacrifices would 
be perpetuated under the gospel, was in effect a spe- 
cies of self-righteousness. They were apt to trust 
in themselves that they were righteous. They trust- 
ed in their own sacrifices for sin. They did not ex- 
18 



£06 DISCOURSE NIN T H . 

pect that the Messiah would offer himself as a mer- 
itorious sacrifice for the sins of the Jews and Gen- 
tiles. Hence sacrificial works and faith in the sa- 
crifice of Christ became opposed to each other. One 
must yield or be yielded, before the other could ad- 
vance. It is testified in the Epistle to the Galatians, 
that if the gentiles were circumcised Christ would 
profit them nothing. The Jewish teachers insisted 
on their circumcision, that they might offer sacrifice. 
What then became of the sacrifice of Christ? Why 
these teachers denied : i-rence. Well then 

might the Apostle testify to these who obeyed them, 
— Christ shall profit you nothing. Christ profits 
not those who have no faith in his meritorious death, 
and who trust in the merits of their own sacrifices. 
In order then to be found in him, "having the 
righteousness which is through the faith of Christ, 
the righteousness which is of God by faith/" 7 it is 
plain, that the merit of the sin-offerings, which 
were appointed under the law of Moses to be pro- 
vided by the sinner and to be offered upon the al- 
tar by the priest for him, must have been counted as 
loss if it ever had been esteemed as gain. Now 
there is no other righteousness of the law, than that 
which the law ordained. " We have," says St. James, 
four men, which have a vow on them ; them take 
and purify thyself with them, and be at charges 
with them." This is an example, how the law re- 
quired the personal observance of its ceremonies, 
how it required every >eisou not one for another 



TO KNOW JESUS CHRIST. 207 

or a few for the many, — " to continue in them to 
do them. " But the right sousneas which is through 
faith identifies the faith and the believer, " To him 
who worketh not but believeth on him who justifi- 
eth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteous- 
ness." The argument is taken from the case of the 
Father of the faithful himself. " For what saith 
the scripture ? Abraham believed God and it was 
counted unto him for righteousness. Now to 
him that worketh, is the i sward not reckoned 
of grace, but of debt." So in th« text, — "I tes- 
tify again to every man." &c. Faith and grace 
go together, and works and debt. To believe 
in him who justifieth the ungodly, is to believe 
that Christ died for the ungodly. The forgive- 
ness of sins is of sice not, of debt. The righ- 
ts o 

teousness which is through the faith of Christ is not 
in the sense that it is often supposed to be, — the 
moral righteousness of Jesus Christ imputed to a 
sinner devoid of personal virtue. If the Messiah 
had not offered himself as a sin-offering, and if the 
sinner had not believed that he did so offer himself, 
there would have been no imputation of rns moral 
or personal righteousness. It was the meritorious 
sacrificial rightoousnes 3 of Christ which Paul sought 
and found by faith. He did not expect to escape 
from the guilt and punishment of a persecutor of 
the church of God, merely because the Messiah had 
never been a persecutor. The grace of our Lord 
he says was exceedingly abundant 

The last point is, — " that T may know him and 



208 DISCO V R S E NINTH, 

the power of 'his resurrection, that I may attain un- 
to the jesurrection of the dead." This knowledge 
diflers in some respects from the excellent know- 
ledge mentioned above. To know the pcwer of his 
resurrection, we must be partakers of the fellowship 
of hts sufferings and made conformable to his death. 
Much of this experience must of coarse be painful. 
Bat what sufferings are too great to obtain such an 
end ? If by any means I ir ay attain unto the" re- 
surrection of the dead !" The words in deaths eft 
may be included in " being made conformable unto 
his death." All the labors of this Apostle were sus- 
tained by extraordinary grace and power. Plow 
well was such a man qualified to preach Jesus and 
the resurrection ! He counted not his life dear un- 
to himself, so that he might know the power of his 
master to save to the uttermost. The consumation 
of all religion is the resurrection of the dead. Paul 
knew in whom he believed, knew that he was the 
resurrection and the life in a degree that perhaps no 
other man ever did. In visions and revelations,— 
for mentioning which, he was charged, as being a 
fool, — he seems to yield ; but in the fellowship of 
the suffering of Christ he yields nothing. Into this 
fellowship he entered, after having estimated all the 
gains and advantages of birth-right and parentage 
and education, and religious zeal as being nothing. 
iC For we would not, biethren, have you ignorant 
of our trouble which came unto us in Asia ; that we 
were pressed out of measure, above strength, in so 
much that we despaired even of life : but we had 



TO KNOW JESUS CHRIST. 209 

the sentence of death in ourselves that we should 
not trust in ourselves, but in God, which raiseth the 
dead ; who delivered us from so great a death and 
doth deliver ; in whom we trust that he will yet de- 
liver us." 

Many of the evidences of the truth of our religion 
cannot be fully realized by us. Sensible evidence 
to them who were witnesses, is to us historical evi- 
dence only. The great point of controversy respect- 
ing the perpetuity of the sacrificial law under the 
gospel dispensation, — the negative of which is so 
ably argued in the letters to the churches, — within 
less than forty years of that time received a sensible 
demonstration. Jesus, in foretelling the destruction 
of Jerusalem, had warned his disciples to flee from it, 
but the believers in the perpetuity of the law sought 
of course to defend it to the last extremity. They put 
life and all to hazard ; for not only their country 
but a religious doctrine and it consequences were 
involved and were to stand or fall with the temple. 
Their religion all was at stake ; that all which the 
believers in the redeeming merits of the crucified 
Jesus had already counted as lost, and in so doing 
had gained an eternal substitute. But though we 
could not witness the fulfilment of the destruction 
of Jerusalem, and though we shall not probably 
witness any more eventful prediction, we may an- 
ticipate the dissolution of our own bodies which will 
be to us the end of all things in this world. Our 
death is predicted ; we cannot doubt the certainty 
18* 



210 DISCOURSE NINTH. 

of it. How desirable is it to us, by any means to 
attain unto the resurrection of the righteous dead ! 
But can any thing prevent us from obtaining it ? If 
so, whatever it may be, shall we not do well to count 
it but loss? Many of the errors and all the vices 
may prevent us from attaining to the resurrection 
of the just; but whichsoever of them shall do so, 
it will be because it will seem to us for the present 
to be gain and to renounce it will appear to be a 
great loss. A severe conflict of interests will take 
place in our minds. The real or supposed pleasures 
or honors or advantages of the present, will be con- 
trasted in our minds with promised or prospective 
advantages. By this means must our conversion 
and salvation be impeded, until we count' all things 
but dung so that we may win Christ. However 
vicious men may be, yet when they begin serious- 
ly to think of religion it is very difficult for them to 
bring their minds to conceive that they can obtain 
no righteousness of their own and not to despair ; 
there must be some anticipations of the excellency 
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus the Lord, some 
idea of the grace and merit of the Saviour, some 
hone of gaining these by losing those. Do we doubt 
the truth of religion? Who foretold the destruction 
of Jerusalem ? The Author of religion. Do we 
doubt the truth of revelation ? Who foretold to man 
his death, and the cause that would produce it ? His 
Maker. Do we doubt the realities of another world ? 
Who brought life and immortality to light? He 



TO KNOW JESUS CHRIST. 2ii 

who foretold his own resurrection, and did rise from 
the dead indeed. There have been many truths 
and facts pertaining to religion which could not be 
doubted ; there are many new which press them- 
selves irresistably upon our minds. Notwithstand- 
ing the most inordinate love of the world, we are 
still convinced that it is passing away. While cur 
desires are strongest to live here forever, we tremble 
in anticipation of death. Why then do we not em- 
brace religion ? Ah ! — the gains of this world and 
the gains of our own righteousness interpose. Our 
hearts are tco strongly attached to them to permit 
us to count them as lost, until they ore lest to us 
'forever. The destruction of Jerusalem was the de- 
struction of the Jewish church and sacrifices. And 
death is to us as the end of the w^orld . How does 
the certainty of it fix vanity and vexation of spirit 
upon all our cares and labors and possessions ! Paul 
loses his old religion, he loses his life ; but he gives 
them up willingly and he gains a new religion, and 
the resurrection from the dead. Wise and holy 
choice ! will the irreligious never reflect, never con- 
sider, how near at hand the end of all things is with 
them? For a world like this in which all ate con- 
signed to death, what can be put in comparison 
with. the resurrection of the dead ? Whcit, but error 
and sin could check the aspirations of the soul for 
it? 

But the text is immediately and peculiarly inter- 
esting as setting forth the opinions and experience 



212 DISCOURSE NINTH. 

of the Apostle to the Gentiles, respecting the differ- 
ence between his own righteousness which is of the 
law, and that which is through the faith of Christ 
the righteousness which is of God by faith. The 
ten commandments or the moral law, in its very 
nature, is quite distinct from the law of sacrifices 
and it is distinct in its purpose or intention. The 
moral law is called a rule of life, and by it as such 
is the knowledge of sin. As a standard and direc- 
tory of men's actions, it was their test. Now the 
law of sacrifice like the law of penalties, in one sense 
was not made for a righteous man. A sin-offering 
was not appointed and commanded to be offered by 
the innocent. The knowledge of sin was not by it, 
but before it. Sin is the transgression of the law. 
Hence the phrase ; — " where there is no law, there 
is no transgression. " " The law was given by Moses, 
but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." It it 
not the meaning, — that Moses gave the law to regu- 
late sacrifice or sin-offerings to be provided by sin- 
ners, but the gracious and truly meritorious offering 
for sin came by Jesus Christ'? No order of time 
we take it was meant to be stated between the mo- 
ral law, and grace and truth ; for no comparison 
can be instituted between them, unless it be upon 
the unscriptural supposition that the moral law is a 
law of atonement. The matter of the moral law 
was not primarily given by Moses. It is the law of 
the Creator. "The voice of Abel's blood cried 
from the ground," — and the penalty of shedding 



TO KNOW JESUS CHRIST, 213 

man's blood was announced to Noah and his sons, 
before Moses received the word; — " Thou shalt not 
kill." Adam and Noah knew that murder was a 
sin. Moral law is to be obeyed or kept, and makes 
no provision for those who break it. The reason 
is, no provision in kind can be made for disobedience. 
For instance, " Thou shalt not kill," is disobeyed 
by killing. Well, the guilt of murder is incurred. 
To cease to kill or murder men leaves the murder- 
er still under his guilt and the penalty of the broken 
law. The moral law as given on two tables of 
stone is by itself; is quite distinct from the laws of 
saci iflce. 

" We conclude," says St. Paul, " that a man is 
justified by faith, without the deeds of the law." — 
Now, this faith is a mode of knowledge in opposi- 
tion to ignorance and error. There can be no faith 
in a state of entire ignorance, and there can be no true 
faith when the mind errs on the very subject or ob- 
ject of faith itself. " That I may know him," says 
the Apostle,—-" for the excellency of the knowledge 
of Christ Jesus my Lord." Many of the unbeliev- 
ing Jew fwere ignorant of God's righteousness, and 
went \ out to establish their own. Others did the 
same through error. The mode of operation is, 
that when a statement is made to our minds we 
know it as a statement; but if it be true in itself 
and we do not believe it, our minds transfer their 
own error horn themselves to the statement. Un- 
belief therefore may be the same in effect as ignor- 



214 DISCOURSE NIPiTH. 

ance or error, and each may react. The erroneous 
opinion of Paul respecting the gain of Hebrew pa- 
rentage and of a Jewish education and of a blame- 
less life touching: the law, was one cause of his un- 
belief. While this cause remained he could not be- 
lieve, for he could not understand how the doctrine 
of the merits of Christ's death could be true. We 
have no intellectual inability to believe anything 
we know to be true, for if we feel or conceive that 
we have "an interest not to believe, we are not con- 
scious of any difference between knowing and be- 
lieving. Thus, we do not perceive the difference be- 
tween knowing and believing that two and two make 
four, for the consent of the mind immediately fol- 
lows the demonstration. And thus, the righteous- 
ness which is of Christ or which is of God, namely, 
— the great all sufficient sacrifice, — is known and 
believed. It is believed because it is known, and 
it is knowu as a believed truth. Every unbeliever 
who has ever heard or read the gospel knows the 
fact that he has heard or read it, and he knows also 
that he does not believe it but the causes of his un- 
belief may remain unknown to him. 

But why cannot the righteousness of Christ be 
imputed to us, without faith ? May not the difficul- 
ty of kn owing it under any other mode of presenta- 
tion to the mind be one reason ? In what would 
the excellency of the knowledge of imputed righ- 
teousness consist ? Arguments have been exhaust- 
ed on ail sides to prove that imputed righteousness 



TO KNOW JESUS CHRIST. 115 

s out of ourselves or beyond us, and so cannot be 
experimentally known or be within us. All fellow- 
ship with inherent righteousness is discarded by a nu- 
merous class of advocates for imputation. They are 
as much opposed to it as to works themselves ; and 
it is well known, they admit of no evidence of their 
religious state either from experience or practice. — 
On this account, presumption has been strongly urg- 
ed against them by their opponents. But the righ- 
teousness of Christ through faith guards against pre- 
sumption, while it leaves the foundation sure. The 
moral, mental, and active faculties are all brought 
under the influence of truth and grace. The Lord 
knoweth them that they are his ; they know in whom 
they have believed ; and men know them by their 
fruits. 

Cincinnati, January, 1838, 



DISCOURSE TENTH. 

RELIGIOUS DIVISIONS. 



See that ye fall not out by the way. 

Genesis slv, 24. 

These are the words of Joseph to his brethren 
when they were about to return to their father after 
the interview in which he made himself known to 
them. One is apt to exclaim ;— what an unamia- 
ble brotherhood must these sons of Jacob have 
been, in so short a time after the affecting- evidence 
of the consequences of their envy and jealousy, to 
have needed from this injured brother a caution 
against the indulgence of these dispositions in a 
journey of only a few days! But when instances 
occur of deviations from known and general cases, 
it may be inferred that some unusual cause must 
have been in operation to produce them. Broth- 
erly love is a natural affection. Charity seems to 
forbid us to suppose that these sons of a common 
father were constitutionally worse than other equally 
numerous fraternities. 

Jacob was a national father, a patriarch, and (he 
second in descent from the patriarch Abraham, the 
father of many nations. Prophecies respecting this 
line, in contradistinction to the other sons of the 



RELIGIOUS DIVISIONS. 217 

great Patriarch, were preserved in this family. The 
promises made to Abraham and confirmed to Isaac 
and to Jacob, it was known to all the twelve sons 
of the latter, must be inherited by one among them. 
But could there be any question which of them it 
should be? Who could dispute the right of the first- 
born to the kingly and priestly offices in the family 
or tribe ? Was not the right of primogenitorship then 
universally admitted? Perhaps the facts to be ad- 
duced will show marked exception to the general 
usage. In the order of their birth, we find, Reu- 
ben, Simeon, Levi. These had offended their 
father by high moral offences, and there were rea- 
sons to suspect that their birth-rights were thus for- 
feited. The effects produced on the minds of all 
the brothers by Joseph's coat of many colors, and 
the recital of his dreams, make it evident that they 
considered it a possible, if not a probable case, that 
Joseph might be appointed by their father as his 
successor in the kingly and priestly offices. It was, 
then, the succession to the Patriarchate, which ex- 
cited the jealousy and the envy of these brethren. 
It is probable that if Reuben had committed no un- 
dutiful act against his father, the succession would 
have regularly and quietly passed to him with his 
father's blessing, without any opposition among his 
brothers. All would have acquiesced in the un- 
forfeited claims of nature. But as his highly un- 
filial conduct, and the treachery and cruelty of Sim- 
eon and Levi had excluded their claims in the or- 
19 



218 DISCOURSE TENTH. 

der of birth-right, the hopes and fears of all respect- 
ing- the last will of their father, agitated them to a 
degree calculated to irritate their feelings, and 
prompt them to desperate deeds. 

Envy and jealousy, in incipient operation, gain 
strength and activity from doubt and uncertainty. 
The power of the father to choose a successor seems 
to have been regarded by all the sons as absolute. 
Hence the anxiety with which they watched all 
the indications of their father's affections, and all 
coincidences, and hence their determination to put 
Joseph out of the way. Taking all the circum- 
stances into consideration, we shall find that these 
were men of like passions with us, and that their 
faults nearly answered, in degree, to the tempting 
causes. Their temptations were of the princely 
and priestly kind, not those of individual and pri- 
vate men. It was a great prize, the office of their 
father ; the desire for it was great and led to desper- 
ate attempts in pursuit of it. 

We propose to consider the text, first, in reference 
to the causes of religious divisions, and secondly, in 
reference to their remedies. 

The brief notices of Cain and Abel contain an 
account of their falling out by the way, and the 
causes of it. The cause of the difference between 
the two sons of Adam was religion. The Lord had 
respect to the sacrifice of Abel, the younger brother, 
and not to that of Cain. The latter was very wroth 
and his countenance fell. And "Cain talked with 



RELIGIOUS DIVISIONS. 219 

his brother Abel— probably upon the subject of 
their late sacrifices. Was it not a religious discus- 
sion? And when they were in the field, Cain rose 
up against his brother Abel and slew him. Had 
Gain the worst of the argument ? Had reason been 
on his side would he have been so very wroth as 
not only to show it in his countenance but to kill 
his brother? But what cause for this murderous 
hatred was there in this divine preference of Abel's 
sacrifice? Was it not in the indication, that the 
blessing of the first-born would be transferred to the 
second son? It seems plain that the subject of pri- 
mogeaitorship engaged the attention and interest of 
the first and second sons of the mother of all the 
living, and of course that it was coeval with reli- 
gion. Had Cain done anything contrary to his 
father's instructions ? Had he innovated in sacri- 
fice in the very case of bringing the first fruit of the 
ground and offering it to the Lord ? And if so, was 
was his motive in so doing religious or avaricious? 
Or was it a mixture of both ? Did he argue in his 
own mind against offering blood, as unnecessary or 
improper? And did he conclude that it would be 
economical to use his own agricultural products, 
rather than to be dependent upon the flocks of his 
brother ? The whole of the extract or abridgment 
(the statement in the fourth chapter of Genesis is 
evidently an abridgement,) indicates, that Adam 
must have given his sons precepts as well as exam- 
ples of sacrifice. We cannot from any analogy 



220 DISCOURSE TENTH. 

conclude, that the sacrifices of the two brothers 
were mere inventions or experiments. A previous 
law or rule must have existed, which marked the 
distinction between the first fruits of the ground and 
the firstlings of the flock. The respect or disrespect 
of the Lord for, or his approbation or disappro- 
bation of any public religious service, must have 
been founded upon some previous signification 
of his will. Adam the priest gave the pattern ; — 
who followed it? Cain or Abel? Were they 
both heads of families and priests at that time ; 
or did they bring their offerings to their father as 
the priest? Either way, it seems that the Lord 
gave Cain an opportunity to retain his birth-right. 
" And the Lord said unto Cain ; If thou doest well ; 
shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not 
well, sin lieth at the door, (a sin -offering is present.) 
And unto thee shall be his (thy brother's) desire, 
and thou shalt rule over him." But it appears that 
Cain did not offer the sin offering or the firstling of 
the flock which was lying at the door, that is, he 
would not. He had disobeyed and would not ac- 
knowledge it. If he had done well in the first in- 
stance, offered the kind of offering that Abel did, 
both his offering and himself would have been ac- 
cepted. Had Cain been taught or did he infer that 
his* birth -right to the priesthood was not uncondi- 
tional or irrevocable ? It would be vain to conjec- 
ture all the reasons or motives of this first-born son 
of man for offering the first fruits of the ground ; 



RELIGIOUS DIVISIONS. 221 

though, if we should indulge in conjecture, history 
and observation furnish so many facts and examples 
that we would scarcely avoid being led by analogy 
and so regarding his as the first recorded example of 
unbelief. 

A second instance of religious division occurs in 
the case of Ishmael and Isaac. In this case too, we 
see the principle of primogenitorship. Ishmael was 
the hist born of the sons of Abraham. " And Abra- 
ham made a great feast, the same day that Isaac 
was wean eel. And Sarah saw the son of Hagar, 
the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, 
mocking. Wherefore she said unto Abraham, cast 
out this bond-woman and her son : for the son of 
this bond-woman shall not be heir with my son, 
even with Isaac. And God said unto Abraham, 
— in Isaac shall thy seed be called." Tnis abridged 
story also bears evidently upon the birth-right of (he 
patriarchate. The son of Hagar must have been 
sufficiently instructed by his mother, to induce him 
at that early age to regard the son of Sarah as hav- 
ing inferior claims to the heritage. He shall not 
says Sara!), be heir with my son Isaac. What had 
the mocking of Ishmael to do with heirship, if he had 
had no reference to it? The design of the history is 
evident. The matter of the inheritance was settled 
by the oracle; — " In Isaac shall thy seed be 
called." 

From that time (o the present, this subject of 
birth-right between Ishmael and Isaac has been a 
19- 



222 discourse * £ ar t h . 

source of religious disagreement. The religion of 
Christians is involved in it. There seems to be no 
good reason drawn from nature, why an office which 
is to descend in a family should not, follow the line 
of the first born, if that line be in all other respects 
equally worthy as that of any of the younger bro* 
tliers ; but it appears to have been a general usage 
in those times which approach nearest to the date 
of Scripture records, that the validity of those titles 
of descent in the first instance depended upon the 
sanction of the fathers. Many examples are to be 
found in ancient and even in modern history of ei- 
der sons being deprived by their fathers of prece- 
dence. 

A third example occurs in Esau and Jacob. In 
this extract of the family record, the birthright is 
expressed in form. Jacob seems to have been well- 
informed that the natural principle of birth-right 
was in favor of his twin-brother Esau. "And Ja- 
cob *aid, sell me this day thy birth-right. And Esau 
said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what pro- 
fit shall this birth right be to me? And Jacob said, 
swear to me this day ; and he svvare unto him : and 
he sold his birth-right unto Jacob." The prophecy 
had before their birth foretold to their mother, that 
the elder should serve the younger, or that Jacob 
should be the successor of his father. What a source 
of eventful movements did this double-birth prove 
to the two families and tribes ! Traces of its effects 
appear in ages following. 






RELIGIOUS .DIVISIONS. 223 

In a fomth case, these birth-right interests involve 
all the twelve tribes of Israel in envy and jealousy. 
Judah it is probable had some presentiment, that he 
should inherit the blessing forfeited by his elder 
brothers, though he advised and participated in the 
selling of Joseph. It would be no difficult task to 
trace almost all the future dissensions of the tribes 
and divisions to this source. The Reubenites were 
the prime movers of the revolt against Moses and 
Aaron in the wilderness. The recollection of their 
fathers seniority is perceivable in their words; — " Ye 
take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi.' 5 The 
ten tribes were evidently never cordial in their at- 
tachment to the house of David. 

But in a fifth instance, we find this same subject 
producing its wonted effects in the house of Jesse. 
All the elder sons of that head of the tribe of Judah 
are made to pass before Samuel in the order of their 
birth, beginning with the eldest, and the Lord's an- 
nointed is not found until the youngest is sent for 
and brought from his attendance on the sheep. 
The 3 T oung shepherd it appears was viewed with 
suspicious eyes by his brethren, who charged him 
with ambition in coming to the camp with supplies 
for them. 

We have argued that the elder brother Cain was 
a transgressor of the law of sacrifice, and on that 
account his offering was not accepted, it being pro- 
bably intended by him as a thank-offering instead 
of a sin-offering. In the Mosaic law which it seems 



224 DISCOURSE TENTH, 

fair to presume conformed in principle to the origi- 
nal law of sacrifice, a sin offering was always an 
offering of blood. And (he offering of Abel accord- 
ing to the epjstle to the Hebrews, was of this na- 
ture. " And wherefore, " abks St. John," slew he 
U ;i ? Because his own works were evil and his 
I filer's righteous." Precedence of birth or age 
gives no right or authority to transgress the divine 
law, or any positive institution. The reasons of 
them were to be sought, not in mere moral consid- 
eration, but in the divine intention to make them 
subservient to given purposes. So the injunction' 
to Moses;- — "See thou make all things, according 
to the pattern showed thee in the Mount.'- In the 
method of instruction by signs, a change in the sign 
would be the same as the changes of letters or 
words in language or the facts or premises in argu- 
ment. A moral action may remain the same in 
principle under various modes and circumstances, 
and the intention of the actor the same. But, in 
attempting to substitute one kind of offering for 
another of divine appointment, no human intention 
could be admitted without at (he same time ques- 
tioning the wisdom or the right of God, and in ef- 
fect making the authority of God subordinate to 
that of man. The right of the first-born or of (he 
oldest person or denomination must always be ta- 
ken with this qualification, that it can give no right 
to do wrong or to change religious institutions. If 
Cain had had no brother, the rejection of his offer- 



RELIGIOUS DIVISIONS. 225 

ing would have offended him ; but if he had be- 
come very wroth it must have been against God, or 
he must have been displeased with himself. Abel 
was innocent, and he was a persecuted man. A 
voice from God might have said ; — Cain, why per- 
secutest thou me? Why art thou wroth against 
me for not accepting thine offering? Thy bro- 
thers' obedience to me and my acceptance of him 
involve in principle no hostility to any other obedi- 
ent person or act. Cain made Abel answerable for 
the acts of God. Did he not show his enmity 
against God? 

When older denominations persecute younger 
ones, wherefore do they persecute them ? It be- 
hooves them to look well to the causes. Happy 
will it be for them, if they shall be found to bear 
no affinity to those which induced the first man to 
shed his brother's blood ! But persecution is in itself 
always wrong. The elder, in all cases should be 
examples of all that is great and good to the younger, 
and especially in magnanimity and forbearance. 
The older Cain kills the younger Able. Behold, 
the progress ! They approach the same altar to- 
gether ; they present their offerings ; that of the 
younger is answered by tokens from heaven of ac- 
ceptance ; the older brother is wroth and his coun- 
senance falls into the expression of the malevolent 
passions. God interposes, interrogates, reasons, ex- 
postulates. The brothers meet in the field ; a con- 
versation ensues; and the murderous tragedy fol- 



DISCOURSE TENTH. 226 

lows. He who obtained witness from God that he 
is righteous, dies by malice aforethought of him who 
obtained no witness. Every reader must exonerate 
the younger brother of all blame ; the cause was 
wholly on the part of him whose precedence in age 
demanded better things. But he gained no religious 
advantage. The grace which he forfeited became 
the inheritance of a still younger brother. 

The case of Ishmael and Isaac seems to involve 
their mothers chiefly. The oldest son was too 
young when he gave the first indications of his as- 
pirations to be morally responsible on so complex a 
subject. Sarah was personally a partner in the 
promises made to Abraham ; she was actually a 
believer in the promise made to her. The seed of 
Abraham according to the flesh, in whom all the 
families of the earth were to be blessed, was to de- 
scend from the son of Sarah. The faith of Sarah 
is expressly mentioned in the letter to the Hebrews. 
And in the letter to the Romans, Isaac is called a 
child of promise for the word of promise was, — Sa- 
rah shall have a son. It is po=iible that Hagar 
might have argued herself into a belief, that her son 
could have no competitor to the birth-right in any 
son of Sarah, though she might have had some 
knowledge of the premises ; for even if she was sub- 
stantially well informed in the first instance every 
one of the fourteen years since the birth of her own 
son was calculated to strengthen her hopes in his 
success. A youth at the age of fourteen under the 



RELIGIOUS DIVISIONS. 227 

influence of a mothers instructions, with no indica- 
tions of displeasure from an aged and fond father to 
discourage him, might feel incipient emotions, — - 
the germs of purposes, — to take by force from an 
infant who might soon be deprived of parental pro- 
tection what he might fail to obtain by consent. 
The Arabians who claim descent from Ishmael 
maintain his birth-right to the present time, and 
justify themselves in acts of plunder on the ground 
of right to a compensation for the fraud to their 
father ; and when scripture is quoted against them 
fail not to charge the descendant of Isaac with cor- 
rupting the text. But the conditions of the promise 
are clearly set forth in favor of the son of Sarah. It 
was in an interval of doubt, that she herself laid the 
foundation for a rivalship to the final fruits of her 
own faith. The condition of Isaac eppears to have 
been too obscure to have called forth into action 
any hostile feelings, which might have been che- 
rished in the bosom of the son of Hagar when he 
had the power to injure him. The son of Sarah 
during his whole life was a plain man, and without 
an increase of family until the decline of life. So 
domesticated a individual could present no promi- 
nent points to excite the latent envy of a rival step 
brother, who probably could see nothing very desi- 
rable in the religious character of his father's bless- 
ing any more than in the condition of its inheritor. 
Ishmael seems to have inherited more of his dispo- 
sition from his Egyptien mother, than from his 



228 DISCOURSE TENTH. 

Chaldean father. The influence she exercised 
over her son would intimate that she was a woman 
of more than a common endowments of mind. The 
descendants of Ishmael have always been acknow- 
ledged as a fine race of men, notwithstanding the 
disadvantages of their country. 

The rivalship between Esau and Jacob began 
early after the eventful bargain for the mess of 
pottage. A mother's interests and iufluence in this 
case too, are conspicuous. Rebecca had sought and 
obtained a knowledge by prophecy respecting her 
twin progeny, as the heads of two distinct tribes 
and races of men, — that the religious precedence 
would be transferred to the younger. The com- 
ment of St. Paul upon the prediction is remarkable. 
" Trie children not yet born, not having done good 
nor evil ; it was said to Rebecca their mother, the 
elder shall serve the younger, that the purpose of 
God according to election might stand." The mo- 
ther it appears had early intimations in the marriage, 
of Esau with the daughters of Canaan, how little 
trustworthy he was likely to prove as joint heir of 
the promises with his father and grand-fathei. But, 
under all these circumstances their father was de- 
termined on giving the blessing to the elder of the 
twin brothers. It is indeed difficult to conceive 
how he could have remained ignorant of the pro- 
phecy communicated to Rebecca ; or if he knew it 
how he could have ventured to attempt to counter 
vail it. His preference of the first born was natural 



IlELIGIOUS DIVISIONS. 229 

enough ; but he could not help knowing that his 
own case was an exception to any general rule of 
succession by seniority. The consequences of this 
family dissension were singularly eventful to Jacob, 
and gave occasion to develope traits of character 
which have few parrallels. >, 

When nature and providence and grace combine 
and progress in unison, the materials of history are 
generally scanty. It is in the exceptions to the ge- 
neral course of events, that history finds subj ects of in- 
terest. If the line of succession had gone on regu- 
larly in the oldest branches of the family through 
Cain, Ishmael, and Esau, it is probable that we 
should scarcely have heard of the names of Abel, 
Isaac and Jacob ; and David too might have re- 
mained unknown had the Lord's annointed been 
found in the first born son of Jesse. We see ' then 
the causes of falling out by the way. 

But a still more remarkable division presents it^ 
self in the origin of the Christian Church and in its 
claims to supersede the Jewish Church. The breach 
of all good fellowship on the part of the latter be- 
came utterly irreconcilable The idea that the law 
of sacrifice must give way to the gospel, that the an- 
cient ceremonies given from Sinai must yield to 
the death of the Messiah, to Jewish feelings was 
past endurance. This offence of the cross has no 
ceased to the present day. The thought that the 
old religion should give place to the new is as shock- 
In vain has Paul the Benjamite ar- 
20 



230 DISCOURSE TENTH, 

gued with his unbelieving countrymen that this 
case was not new> but so far from it that examples 
of it occur in the earliest period of their family, and 
that the claims of the tribe of Judah and the house 
of David rested upon it. In vain did he quote their 
own scriptures ;• — In Isaac shall thy seed be called, 
The elder shall serve the younger. The pride of 
birth-right in the old synagogue was too strong to 
yield to the new disci pleship. And are not the same 
principles still in operation in the Christian Church 
itself? What new denominations of Christians has 
appeared, without giving offence to older ones? 
The fact itself of such an appearance is regarded as 
heresy. The first significations of a new Christian 
name, are the signal for a falling out by the wa}~. 
How it is asked can the older, and especially the 
oldest of all be in fault ? To attempt to prove or 
to assume that the Lord has respect to the younger 
or to the offering, in the estimation of the older, is 
but to aggravate the offence. When new denomi- 
nations place much importance upon spiritual to- 
kens or revivals, it only serves to expose them to 
Abel's fate. 

The rule will work both ways as individuals and 
churches are not to be regarded as right because they 
are old, so they may not be regarded as right because 
they are young. It is not to be supposed that the 
head of the church will interrupt any regular suc- 
cession in the order of seniority, without some rea- 

•» in fact or in anticipation. The sovereignty of 
■nrratters of preference between individuals or 



RELIGIOUS DIVISIONS. 231 

bodies of men, is not to be questioned by mortals. 
The sovereignty is evident in preferring the race 
of Jacob to that of Esau, for the choice was made 
before the fathers were born, before they had done 
good or evil. If the question were asked, — who 
did sin, the Edomites or their father Esau? — it 
could not be answered that the iniquity of the father 
was visited upon the children. The design accord- 
ing to the Apostle was to show, that, the purpose of 
God according to election, might stand. But does 
this mean, that God might be bound by the natural 
line of succession in the oldest son, and not that he 
might choose without regard to birth or the order of 
ages ? If the doctrine of regular order and succes- 
sion admits of no exceptions, how can the purpose 
of God according to election stand? The right 
of election or choice implies the exercise of reasons 
and motives in making a choice. Otherwise, it 
would have availed nothing for God to have foreseen 
that the Edomites would be less* qualified to fulfil 
his promises than the Israelites. The choice or the 
sovereignty of God (to speak after the manner of 
men) is always regulated by his own wisdom ; but 
he is not bound to give an account of that wisdom 
to man, neither is he offended that man should dis- 
cover it and indicate it. The purpose of God not to 
bind himself nor to be bound by men, to continue 
his promises to the first born of the families to whom 
he makes them, seems to set aside the claims of 
older churches among Christians as well as Jews. 



232 DISCOURSE TENTH. 

This point is evidently argued in the ninth chapter 
of the Epistle to the Romans. What was the ob 
jection of the Jews against the Christians? A 
want of age. How could it be accounted for, that 
the venerable dispensation of Sinai should give place 
to the upstart gospel of yesterday ? The answer is, 
because God wills it. How could he will it ? Be- 
cause it is his will. His purpose is, to choose or 
elect and not to bind himself by the order of human 
births or events. If Jacob had been ike first born, 
the birth right principle, there can be no doubt 
would not have been interrupted. Nothing would' 
have been propheeied or recorded about the matter, 
and so in other cases. We have seen the character 
of the expert huntsman and that also of the skilful 
and persevering shepherd. We have the conse- 
quences and tendencies of the two modes and ha- 
bits of life and manners ; and knowing as we do, 
the nature of the mission to be fulfilled, how can 
we doubt the greater fitness of the shepherd Jacob 
and his sons for the work ? 

The schism (as it is called,) between the Greek 
and Latin churches, is also an instance of the fall- 
ing out by the way which turned upon the principle 
of prior claims. Each party contended for the prior 
right, "without an allusion or a preference on either 
side to the purpose of God according to election, 
each being equally intent to maintain their favorite 
claim of precedence. And the reformers, among- 
whom exists the pronenessso common to maintain 



HELlGIOtS DIVISIONS. -233 

the doctrine of election and reprobation, never once 
refer to the example on which they rest their doctrine ; 
but could any example have been- more relevant 
than that of Jacob and Esau? Suppose that 
the children of Israel had been charged by the Edo- 
mites with schism and heresy ;— how would they 
have vindicated themselves from the charge ? 
Would they not have proved that seniority must 
yield to the choice of God ? Would they not have 
asked whether a precedence in time is to interfere 
with the purpose of God to choose between the elder 
•and the younger ? Wliy then might not the re- 
formers have retorted the charges of the want of an- 
tiquity, by asserting the choice of God in the case of 
Jacob ? 

The times in which we live and the country we 
live in, seem in a peculiar manner to give the text an 
application to every religious denomination. " See 
that ye fall not out by the way!" The circum 
stances under which these States have been settled 
indicate a Providential intention to set aside all 
pretensions of birth right as a ground of national 
•superiority. The claims of conscience and of asy- 
lum from persecution may be set up by almost all 
the leading orders of the churches in the Union. 
In the countries from which they emigrated they 
had fallen out by the way. They had become a 
prey to fatal dissensions which nothing could com- 
promise, short of a sacrifice of conscience or an ex- 
ile beyond the Western Ocean. How has that Bay • 
20* 



234 DISCOURSE TENTH, 

ing, — the first shall be last, 'and the last first,— been 
fulfilled in the wilderness of America ! 

Hardly a disagreement can arise in any church 
or society but some question of precedence will come 
up involving who is oldest or greatest, some claim 
on one part or some rejection of claim on the other. 
It is only to look back upon the history of churches 
in this country, to be convinced that the purpose of 
God according to election, that is according to the 
examples of it furnished in the bible, has either not 
been fully understood or not duly conformed to. Is 
it not plain, that age and choice may be in opposi- 
tion to each other? Behold, the illustration ! Age 
is to decide ; what then remains? Nothing, but to 
examane the records for proof of seniority. Choice 
is out of the question ! But** it will be said, the 
choice of God precedes all genealogy ; and it has 
been thought impossible to reconcile this election 
with the well-known scripture, — "God hath chosen 
the man that is godly to himself." Well, how could 
he do the latter if the right of birth must obtain ?— 
The choosing before the birth and the choosing the 
godly to himself are in accordance. In choosing 
or electing members of the church of Christ there is 
neither Jew nor Gentile, barbarian nor Scythian, 
bond nor free, male nor female. Nations and in- 
dividuals may be elected or selected to do certain 
things or accomplish certain purposes; and this 
choice may be signified prophetically or providen- 
tially. Jacob, as the head of the family through 



RELIGIOUS DIVISIONS. 



235 



which the seed of Abraham should descend, may 
be regarded as elect according to the foreknowledge 
of God. But this election was necessarily limited 
to the twins of Rebecca. They could not have been 
both chosen or have been joint-heirs without des- 
troying the identity of the* genealogical records, 
which to be good for any thing must be limited to 
one son of one father. A divine choice of any other 
family could not have fulfilled the promise to that 
family, namely ; — In thy seed, all the families of the 
earth shall be blessed. The sovereignty of God in 
this instance is plainly limited by the veracity of 
God. It is impossible for God to lie. To a super- 
ficial observer Esau's intermarriages might appear 
at least harmless; but to the mind of his mother it 
was portentous of consequences to religion which 
might subvert the divine dispensations. The weak- 
ness of the faith of this son or his indifference to the 
promises, was manifest in his reflections on the trans- 
fer of his birth-right, when it is contrasted with the 
character of his grand-father who was strong in faith 
giving glory to God. Esau gave no indications of 
a faith which believes in hope against hope. Much 
less, did be manifest any traits of the kind and de- 
gree of the faith that would have offered up Isaac to 
receive him from the dead in a figure. With such 
faith, the proposition of Jacob would have been re- 
pelled and the answer would have been; — I will 
sooner die than give up my birth-right, for God 
would raise me from the dead sooner than his pro- 



§36 b t s c o u r s e fatfa. 

mise could fail. There was then some reason t3 
esteem Esau a profane person for selling his birth.- 
light under the influence of hunger, for he found 
no place for repentance though he sought it care- 
fully with tears. Unbelief is never trustworthy 
when the promises of God are concerned. The 
election of God was not the cause of this lack of 
faith, but the anticipation and the preventive of its 
consequences. But history abounds in instances of 
providential selections, to accomplish purposes of 
mercy or judgment. In these respects the fitness of 
agents must be judged of relatively to the work they 
are to accomplish. Esau and his descendants were 
by no means subjects of Providential reprobation. 
The tribe soon rose to distinction and power and 
was respectable as a nation, after the destruction of 
Jerusalem by Titus. 

But the disposition of the human mind is to infer 
universal and perpetual fitness from particular cases 
and relations; and hence the modification of the 
maxim, — once in grace, always in grace, — or the 
claim of light to new successors upon the merit of 
old ones. And hence the predilection for perpetual 
succession to titles and prerogatives. It is possible 
however that if some of the useful men of former 
ages or men like them should now appear, they 
would be found much less qualified for the present 
state of society. But many of them have eulogists 
who fall out by the way with all who do not join 
in their admiration. 



RELIGIOUS DIVISIONS. 237 

The backs of men of former times in their aims to 
do good, were no doubt in many instances fitted to 
their burdens; but the nature of the burdens may 
be now changed. Civilization advances or recedes 
in different countries in different ages, and the char- 
acters of human agencies for good answer in come 
respects to these states of men and things. 

The remedies to religious divisions or dissentions 
which we proposed in the second place to consider, 
we have in part pointed out in showing the causes 
themselves. The spirit of religious tolerance had 
been gaining ground in Europe by a steady progress, 
when the rights of conscience and of private judg- 
ment began to be legislated upon in our own coun- 
try. Not the Dutch United Provinces only had 
risen to the zenith of greatness by tolerating all. 
England in part had followed the example. And 
unbelievers had sustained in their own behalf an 
entire emancipation from all religious ascendancy, 
when all found themselves side by side in America 
in the legislative halls, and so equal in power and 
strength that any want of common attachment was 
supplied by common 'fears. Tolerance was not to 
be named ; neither would receive what the other 
was willing to give. Nothing therefore remained 
but universal liberty for conscience and private judg- 
ment in the statute books. This is the basis for all 
remedies for religious dissensions. With other de- 
nominations we cannot fall out by the way, without 
falling out with the constitutions and laws of our 
country, 



328 DISCOURSE TENTH. 

But we may fall out by the way among ourselves 
as the sods of Israel did, and as the disciples of Je- 
sus did in disputing who should be greatest. Ele- 
ments of discord exist among us. They naturally 
reside in every fraternity, and so soon as the princi- 
ple of right of precedence is brought into question 
they develope themselves. The rights of private 
udgme'nt and of private action are difficult to be 
adjusted in the way of compromise among equals. 
Cincinnati, January, 1838. 



DISCOURSE ELEVENTH, 

GOD'S RIGHTEOUSNESS. 



Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that 
they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal 
of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant 
of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righ- 
teousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of 
God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every" 
one that he believeth. 

Romans, x. 1—4. 

Zeal for religion is always commendable, in op- 
position to atheism or lukewarmness. Paul felt a 
deep interest in the welfare of his countrymen who 
rejected the gospel ; his prayers to God were, that they 
might be saved from the ignorance and error which 
had misguided their zeal- It is correct and pru^ 
dent, in attempting to convince persons of error, to 
commend all that is praiseworthy in them and to 
manifest all the feelings of kindness towards them ; 
for it is one thing to reprove or rebuke gross vices, and 
another to instruct and enlighten minds under the in- 
fluence of ignorance or of error which they mistake for 
truth. To some who had not the knowledge of 
God, the Apostle spoke it to their shame; and 
he calls upon them to awake from sleep and to arise 
from the dead. 
Zeal, to effect any thing good or gtfeat, must be 



240 DISCOURSE ELEVENTH, 

according to knowledge, for without it is heat with- 
out light, an emotion without eyes. This zeal with- 
out or not. according to knowledge was in effect 
what is commonly called self-righteousness, and was 
conspicuous in the Phaiises, the most zealous and 
the most influential of all the Jewish sects. The 
Saducees who denied the resurrection and believed 
not in angels nor spirits, were more zealous in poli- 
tics than in religion. Righteousness whether divine 
or human was matter of indifference to them. Great 
natural talents improved by eminent literary attain- 
ments, it appears from facts, have no immediate 
power to correct ignorance or error on points of re- 
ligious doctrince, The learned Gamaliel and his 
no less learned pupil Saul of Tarsus remained ig- 
norant of the righteousness of God, as well as the 
great body of the Phaiises, and went about to estab- 
lish their own righteousness. Many learned and 
zealous Christian moralists are charged with the 
same kind of ignorance and error in practice. 

There are two meanings to the word righteous- 
ness, — first moral righteousness, and secondly sacri- 
ficial or atoning righteousness. The righteousness 
of God and its parallels always seem to mean sacri- 
ficial righteousness. And if men went about to es- 
tablish their own righteousness, by doing moral acts 
or good works that is by doing good to others, it 
was assumed that tjiese works were meritorious in 
the same sense as sacrifices are considered to be, 
that is, may if needs be operate all the effects of 



GOD'S RIGHTEOUSNESS. 241 

atonement or sin-offering. Almost all the merit 
of good works and self-righteousness now preached 
against in modern pulpits is of this kind, for as ac- 
tual bloody sacrifices have gone out of use they can 
only be brought into view as matters of history. — ■ 
Self-righteous christians or christians who go about 
to establish their own righteousness by works of 
piety and- m oral it}?- or good works properly so called, 
work not merely as a duty or in obedience to pre- 
cept but to compensate for omissions of duty or to 
make restitution to God or his law for offences 
against it or acts of disobedience All the laws of 
sacrifices were made for sinners. So, if a Jew of- 
fered a lamb or kid for a sin-offering, the act was an 
acknowledgement that lie was a sinner. This would 
appear by the question,— what did he do that for? 
Because he is a sinner. For no Jew would have 
dared to say, he offered a sin-offering or an atone- 
ment because he was a righteous man as the 
very letter of the law must have convicted him. — ■ 
Now let the christian be asked ; — what did you do 
that for, what did you fast and pray for, what did 
you give alms for? And the answer will fix his 
own character and the character of the action should 
he answer, — I did it as a sinner, I did it as a sin-of- 
fering or an atonement for my sins. So also, if mo- 
ney be given ; — what did you give that money for? 
I gave it as a sinner to procure my pardon for sins] 
It is plain, that these acts would ail be self- righ- 
teousness in a Jew and a Christian, would be a go- 
21 



242 DISCOURSE ELEVENTH, 

ihg about to establish their own righteousness. The 
illustration of the case by our Lord makes it plain 
also. " So, after ye have done all, say, we are un- 
profitable servants, we have done no more than it 
was our duty to do." For if a man does a good act> 
not as a duty but as an atonement, he must mean 
to do more than his duty. All these intentional 
works are to be classed with sin-offerings, and to be 
considered as an admission of a guilty conscience, 
A moral righteousness or works well done as duty, 
are not sacrificed for, either with or without blood. 
It is only the fault or the defect of a good work 
that needs mercy. To go about to establish righ- 
teousness as the Jews did, by Offering victims at the 
altar, was not to go on to perfection or to finish a 
course of goodness already begun. 

God's righteousness is God's sacrifice for sin, God 
giving and accepting the sacrifice. The zealous 
Jews were ignorant of this; they went about to get 
the sacrifice to offer to God that he might accept it 
as their righteousness. This was what St. Paul 
meant by the words,—" touching the righteousness 
of the law, blameless." He does not intend to say 
that he never committed a moral evil, but that he 
had offered all the sin offering the law of sacrifices 
requires. Writers and preachers seem to be liable 
to some confusion of ideas in treating of subjects of 
moral and sacrificial righteousness, and in the ardor 
of pulpit addresses are apt to become indistinct and 
strangely unintelligible. When Paul speaks of 
keeping a conscience void of offence towards God 



GOD'S RIGHTEOUSNESS, 24-3 

and men, he does not mean going about to establish 
sacrificial righteousness or striving to do good works 
to make an atonement for sins of omission or com- 
mission. And when he says, — " not by works of 
righteousness which we have done, but according 
to his own mercy he hath saved us," — the parallel- 
ism implies or includes works of sacrificial righteous- 
ness which we have done. Moral obedience saves 
nobody who is lost. The most it could ever or can 
do, is to preserve. The same parallelism is in the 
the righteousness of the law and the righteousness 
which is of God by faith. And again, — " ye are 
saved by grace through faith, not of yourselves," — 
not of works of sacrificial righteousness which have 
been offered to God. The gift is God's, not yours. 
Innocent and holy men may do works of moral 
righteousness in obedience to law. But under the 
covenant of works, there was no sacrificial righteous- 
ness-. Before the fall of man there could not have 
been any sin offering, for there was no sin. The 
reason why God provided a sacrificial righteousness 
for all under the second covenant is, that all have 
sinned or will sin, and come short of the glory of 
God. The covenant includes the offspring of fallen 
man, for he could not have saved them himself, 
from the consequences of his fall. Jesus Christ the 
righteous is God's sacrifice. Behold, the mystery 
of Godliness, — God manifest in the flesh ! It is 
well and truly said, that Jesus Christ was crucified 
under Pontius Pilate the Roman officer, then in- 



244 DISCOURSE ELEVENTH. 

command in the province of Judea. In the judg- 
ment of the Jewish rulers, his crime was that he 
made himself the Son of God ; for this, they said, 
according to their law he ought to die. But this 
was his true merit ; — " God so loved the world, that 
he gave his only begotten Son." Mark the effect 
of the prejudice of the priest and the elders. They 
betrayed the Holy One and the Just ! 

The law of sacrificial righteousness seems to be, 
that the sacrifice need not be in kind or the same as 
the offence; but that it must be the same with the 
penalty denounced upon the breaker of the law, 
and this is — death. " The soul that sinneth. it 
shall die." A restitution in kind is not legally con- 
sidered as sufficient to restore an offender against the 
law to legal innocence. Annual sacrifices are to be 
traced to the earliest traditions and records of na- 
tions, a pretty sure proof of their early origin as well 
as the early origin of sin. Those who reject the 
bible have sought for them in the revengeful and 
vindictive passions of the human heart. But must 
it not occur to the mind upon reflection, independ- 
ently of other considerations, that compensation in 
kind, the basis of the law of retaliation or revenge, 
in the- very nature of things must needs be very li- 
mited. The law protects life ; how is the murderer 
to make compensation in kind ? By his own life. 
But that restores nothing. So with property ; can 
the robber or the incendiary make compensation in 
kind ? We speak now upon the supposition that 






©OD'B RIGHTEOUSNESS. 24S 

laws are of human authority only. But the first 
ideas of mankind were that they were of divine origin 
and authority. All nations agree in this. Their 
poets who have transmitted their traditions put life 
and property under divine protection ; and show 
how offenders against the laws had to offer sin-of- 
ferings to placate offended divinity. But by what 
offering could this be really done ? Not surely by 
any one the sinner might choose. Even when 
man is justly offended the offender is not to dictate 
to him terms of reconciliation. The Divinity when 
offended by a frail mortal must be submitted to ; 
the guilty creature must humbly wait to know whe- 
ther he may hope for mercy, and must then thank- 
fully accept it on proffered terms. Sinners have 
neither wisdom nor power to propose to God any 
terms for their own pardon which could restore the 
authority of the divine law or secure to it future 
obedience. God's righteousness can accomplish 
these ends ; not so, any righteousness which sinners 
may go about to establish. The legal sacrifices 
though of divine appointment were appointed only 
as types ; they could not purify the conscience as 
was evident from the acknowledgement implied in 
each repetition of them. 

In general the human consequences of sin are 
irreparable; and in &veij instance their immediate 
tendency is to weaken the authority of law over 
the mind and to produce an aversion to it. The 
blood of God's righteous sacrifice shed in his death, 
21* 



246. DISCOURSE ELEVENTH. 

cleanseth from all sin ; but among the unaccounta- 
ble number of sins not one of them is like it. And 
why should this be objected to? Money the me- 
dium of all values is unlike them all. The gospel 
plan is mediatorial. Not so sin ; its effects are im- 
mediate and direct. Guilt follows sin without any 
medium. Not so the pardon of sin or the removal 
of guilt ; this is an act of Omnipotent Will or Pow- 
er, " There is one mediator to the new covenant 
between God and men, who gave himself a ransom 
for us all." Much indeed is said about the active 
and passive obedience or righteousnesss of Christ, 
and of the imputation of the former ; and even when 
it has not been said in so many words that the righ- 
teousness of God or of Christ means that moral obe- 
dience is imputed to us, the language is so incau- 
tiously used that it is apt to be inferred. But if it 
be so, is it not the righteousness in kind or by op- 
position ? Did those zealous Jews refuse to submit 
to the proposal that the Messiah should be good 
and righteous for them ? If the proposition had 
been so stated, would not the offence of the cross, 
have in a great measure ceased ? The truth of 
this case of the active righteoesness of Christ as we 
understand it is, that though it is not in itself vica- 
rious, it is necessary to the vicarious sacrifice. He 
suffered, the Just for the unjust, the sinless for the 
sinner. He made him to be sin (a sin-offering) for 
us who knew no sin. He was holy, harmless, and 
undefiled, separate from sinners that he might be 



GOD'S RIGHTEOUSNESS, 247 

such an high priest as becomes us, and offer him- 
self without spot to God, to redeem us from all ini- 
quity and purify unto himself a peculiar people 
zealous of good works,— not to do good works in 
our stead. 

Many of the modern profecsors of religion do not 
admit of God's righteousness, though they are not 
ignorant cf the doctrine that makes it consist in God 
being the giver and the receiver of it, but because 
their reason is offended with such an idea. They 
hold it to be absurd and ridiculous that God should 
give a satisfaction to his own law. But would it 
still appear absurd to them, if they considered that 
the end to be answered is to secure the obedience of 
the pardoned sinner to bis law? It is an easy 
matter to make out an absurdity hypothetically, or 
by assuming premises or conclusions. We hold 
the scripture statement to be in substance : that God 
revealed his laws to secure life and property, that 
these laws were disobeyed, that the execution of 
them upon their offenders does not prevent others 
from offending, that the crimes multiply faster than 
the punishments, and that to prevent a just and 
righteous extermination of a disobedient race 
who have filled the world with violence, God had 
recourse to the plan of mercy and love, the plan of 
sacrificial righteousness in which he gives his only 
begotten Son to shed his own blood or gives his 
own life upon the cross, and accepts the merits of 
this offering for sin to secure the obedience to his 



248 DISCOURSE ELEVIITTH, 

laws by the pardon of those who have transgressed 
them instead of destroying them as justice demands* 
The Lord is our king, the Lord is our Law-Giver, 
the Lord is our Judge, but he is the Saviour of Is- 
rael too and the hope thereof. " God was in 
Christ, reconciling the world unto himself." The 
mediatorial plan as set forth in the gospel as far as 
words can do it, makes God all and in all. In this 
plan man gives nothing to God in the nature of an 
atonement to offended law or justice. The sinner 
is bought with God's price. 

This view of the sacrificial rigteousness of Godj 
which is to the Greeks foolishness, and also to the 
modern inheritors of their wisdom, is the foundation 
of faith and makes faith the substitute for man's en- 
deavors to establish his own righteousness. What is 
the guilty sinner to believe? He is to believe in 
the Lord Jesus Christ. What is he to believe re- 
specting him ? He is to believe that he is God's 
only begotten son, and that God spared not his own 
Son but delivered him up for us all ; he is to believe 
that we are reconciled to God by the death of his 
Son and shall be saved from wrath through him. 
A guilty conscience naturally prompts the mind to 
do something or to despair. Sinners have ndt been 
apt to moke compensation in' kind, from the fact of 
their bankruptcy in means to do it if for no other 
reason ; but the opinion and feeling are also com- 
mon in a greater or less degree, that God the law- 
giver and judge, as well as man is offended. The 



god's righteousness. 249 

guilt of sin which sinks not the soul into the dark- 
ness and blackness of despair, will seek to appease 
an offended God; and desperate have often been the 
means to which recourse lias been had, to soothe 
the agonies of conscience even among professors of 
Christianity. All the world is familiar .with the 
history of the holy wars, carried on by the soldiers 
of the cross, (so called.) Well, while a leaf of the 
history of these wars remains all the world may 
know that these armies went about the four quar- 
ters of the globe to establish their own righteousness. 
Preachers of crusades went through the nations, not 
with bounty-money to raise recruits but with pro- 
mises of pardon to all who should enlist in the war 
against the infidels or heretics. Now is it not de- 
monstrable from the very premises, that such a state'of 
things could not have happened in any age or coun- 
try, if the ministers of religion and the people had 
believed that God had provided a sacrificial right- 
eousness for them, instead of requiring them to ex- 
terminate races of men to establish their own ? 
Crusaders who were laying waste countries and ci- 
ties with fire and sword to merit heaven, did not 
surely bejieve in justification by faith. The cry of 
" Behold, the Lamb of God that taketh away the 
sins of the world !" — anticipates the inquiry of the 
wounded heart, — what shall I do ? Those foolish 
men who make a mock at sin mock also at the 
righteousness of God and at faith in Christ ; but 
when reflection shall come and conscience shall be 






250 DISCOURSE ELEVENTH. 

quickened into action, if they be not prepared to be- 
lieve in the foundation already laid, they must real- 
ize to their sorrow that no man can lay any other. 

The ignorance of the Jews was only about God's 
righteousness* Of the means of establishing their 
own, they were well informed. The law of typical 
sin-offerings was carried out in all its details, so as to 
leave nothing to conjecture. The animal was to be 
of the clean species, to be without blemish ; but 
above all as has been shown the vicarious character 
of sin-oferings was carefully distinguished from mo- 
ral obedience. The offerer was taught not to regard 
the sacrifices of the altar as substitutes of obedience, 
but as atonements for past disobedience. In this 
respect Jewish ignorance and knowledge differed 
greatly from those of the Heathens and of certain 
Christians. Neither of these has any divinely pre- 
scribed form of sacrifice, but they depend upon the 
priest or their own invention. Heathen priests in 
certain cases required human sacrifices ; but among 
Christians these are required only in crusades and 
holy wars against infidels and heretics. The mod- 
ern advocates for the merit of moral good works have 
to depend wholly on invention from first to last. 
The supposition that the crime of taking one man's 
bread can be atoned for by giving bread to another, 
or the crime of cursing one man can be atoned for 
by blessing another man, is altogether antiscri plural. 
St. Peter has it that his brethren were not redeemed 
from their vain conversation with corruptible things, 



GOD3S RIGHTEOUSNESS. 251 

as silver and gold, " but with the precious blood of 
Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without 
spot: who verily was foreordained before the foun- 
dation of the world, but was made manifest in these 
last times." Notwithstanding all the objections 
against faith in ihe merits of the death of Christ 
as being injurious or destructive of moral obedience, 
a fair and full review of the history of the subject 
in all its relations will go to show, that ignorance or 
error upon this point has led directly or indirectly to 
almost all the practical evils connected with religion 
which have been so much censured or deplored. - 

What for instance could Priestcraft do with a 
sacrificial righteousness already provided for the 
sinner, the benefit of which in -the pardon of sin 
can only be derived by the faith of the sinner him- 
self, the promise being, he that believeih shall be 
saved not he that sacrificeih? The mind of the re- 
ligious inquirer is thus naturally led to inquire for 
the evidence of the truth of the promise, or of the 
reality of the sacrifice proposed as the object of his 
faith. And the religious instructor is bound, by 
i the nature of the case to show all that evidence, and 
to maintain faith in all its integrity. Let the text 
• be, — "God so loved the world &c." — -and it is man- 
, ifest that Priestcraft cannot touch it without assum- 
:ing the character of a preacher and saying, — Behold 
;, I bring you glad tidings, that God in love, in pity, 
[ has given his Son,— and so proceeding to excite the 
confidence of the doubting sinner and to operate up- 



252 DISCOURSE ELEVENTH. 

on the fears of the unbeliever only. No condem- 
nation can be threatened to the believer. It cannot 
be said, — if you do not believe the sacrifice must be 
suspended, the Priest cannot offer it, — for it is al- 
ready offered and the promise of all its benefits are 
already pledged to the believer upon the Divine ver- 
; ; v. The faith is in. the veracity of the written 
] omise of God, and it is impossible that the writing 
should lie. Priestcraft can have no more control or 
influence over the truth of a record, than over the fact 
recorded. The opprobium of implicit faith can have 
no placehere. It is difficult to conceive how any per- 
son, who has any regard to the distinction between 
virtue and vice, can avoid paying some attention to 
the defects or imperfections of his own virtues, and 
help casting about for some means of redeeming 
them. Of what avail will it be, after the manner 
of some professors of religion to make the memory 
a kind of balance sheet of debtor and creditor, and 
credit one's-self with all con ceivable virtues in though t 
word and deed as an offset against conscience, though 
care should be taken to reduce the debts as low as 
possible and to augment the value of the virtues 
without any regard to any fixed previous standard ? 
Even this mode of going about to establish one's 
own righteousness cannot stand a moment before 
the all-searching eye of divine justice, when it 
searcheth the heart and trietti the reins to find truth 
in the inward parts. 

The antinomian consequences of making Christ 



GOD^S RIGHTEOUSNESS. 253 

the end of the law for righteousness to every on^ 
that believeth, still urged among the moderns in 
imitation of some among the ancients, it has been 
already stated, had its origin in confounding moral 
and sacrificial righteousness. But Christ is not the 
end of the moral law, that is, he has not put an end 
to k or in other words repealed it; nor did he so 
obey it as to free us from all obligations to obey it. 
And he is not the end of the sacrificial law itself to 
unbelieving Jews. They do not so regard him. 
A believer in the meritorious sacrifice of Christ, who 
relies upon it alone on the principle that Christ is 
God's sacrifice, the sacrifice of the innocent and not 
the guilty for the guilty, must infer that the law oi 
typical sacrifices is thus brought to an end The 
state of Paul's mind clearly illustrated the whole 
subject. He was intimately acquainted with the 
ancient law having studied it under the most able 
and approved masters and being one of the most 
zealous and conscientious of its observers ; but when 
he came to the knowledge of God's righteousness 
he discovered a meaning in the prophets and in the 
hook of psalms which he had never perceived be- 
fore. He found that Abraham and David were jus- 
tified by faith in a sacrifice to be offered for them 
by the incarnate Messiah and not by their own sa- 
crificial acts, and also that Abraham became the 
Father of the Faithful before he was circumcised. 
And he found moreover that the promises which 
are the objects of faith were made four hundred 
22° 



254 DISCOURSE ELEVENTH. 

years before the law of sacrifices was promulgated 
hy Moses. The epistle to the Hebrews is a perfect 
specimen of inductive reasoning upon this subject ; 
showing how the idea of a sinner making the atone- 
ment to the offended moral law of God by his own 
offerings, and how faith in the merits of an atone- 
ment made by another for him counteract each 
other, and how if they do not neutralize each other 
one or the other must prevail. 

And similar conclusions must be arrived at by 
christian moralists, who aim to make a part of their 
duty like a sin- offering for omissions or defects in 
another part of it. The more they rely upon their 
good works or attempt to multiply them in order to 
rely upon them, the weaker or more inert their faith 
will become in the atoning merits of the Messiah. 
Such a process must therefore naturally lead to an 
indifference, to say the least, to the death of Christ 
as a sacrifice. By a similar logical process in the 
mind, faith in the merits of Christ's death will de- 
stroy confidence in atoning good works. The mind 
cannot without the intervention of some error sus- 
tain one proposition in opposition to another, or in 
preference to another without reason. When moral- 
ists say, — We have done all we can and we trust. that 
Christ will do the rest, — if they mean, all we can to 
merit salvation, their trust is in vain. Experience in 
almost innumerable instances shows that meritorious 
morality opposes justification by faith in its action 
upon the mind, nearly in the same way as the legal 



G0D5S RIGHTEOUSNESS. 255 

•sacrifices affected those who regarded them as mer- 
itorious. When the crisis arrives to believe, there 
is in both cases always something to be done first: 
the mind is never quite ready, not quite good enough 
yet. " To him that worketh not but believeth ;" — 
is an enigma which can only be solved by a know- 
ledge of God's righteousness. Those who under- 
stand its fulness, its all -sufficiency, can believe now. 
Those Jews, who believed Jesus to be the true 
Messiah and still trusted in the sacrificial righteous- 
ness of the law, must have suffered the consequen- 
ces of half-knowledge and half- measures and could 
hardly have said, — they knew in whom they had 
believed, — with the same fulness of persuasion as 
St. Paul did:— 

Jesus, when I have lost my all, 
I shall upon thy bosom fall ! 

Theleltersof the Apostles to the churches have ful- 
ly carried out the argument in favor of God's righteous- 
ness, and furnished all the proof necessary to settle, 
slablish and comfort, the believer in the faith. 

The consequences of ignorance on this point are 
also very evident. We are afraid to remain station- 
ary in the dark and afraid to move for fear of going 
wrong. Deists themselves in extreme cases have 
manifested a propensity to self-sacrifice, or to go 
about to. establish their own righteousness. Men 
indeed must be lost to all feeling of virtue, who can 
reflect upon a life of vice without any emotion or 



256 DISCOURSE ELEVENTH. 

desire to do something to make some compensation 
to heaven and earth, to God and men, for their sins. 
There is a good deal of intentional or would-be self- 
lighteousness in the world, as well as sincere and 
zealous endeavors to establish a character by it. Ig- 
norance of the gospel plan of salvation exposes the 
mind to many winds of doctrine \ and not unfre- 
quently to a belief in the doctrine of being so per- 
fect in Christ as to lose all identity of obedience and 
accountability. To such an extent is the opinion 
and belief in Christ's personal righteousness some- 
times carried ! But the words, — " Christ is the end 
of the law, to every one that believeth," — mean not, 
that Christ has left no duties for Christians to per- 
form, or that because he has left no law there is no 
transgression. Preach the gospel, teaching them 
whatsoever I command you ; — so runs the gospel 
commission. Christ then commanded some things to 
be done; hence the words, — " being under law to 
Christ." The opinion about imputation, which is 
calculated by inference to suspend the feeling of obli- 
gation to personal obedience, is guarded against by the 
principle in redemption that the price is in value, — 
not to do the same kind of work for another which 
the law required him to do, but to secure the prin- 
ciple of obedience in him whose sins are forgiven. 
The law is ; — " Thou shalt not kill." Now if the 
murderer persuades himself to believe (hat by faith 
in Christ he can never again be a separate sinner, 
being complete and perfect in Christ, and must for- 



GOD'S RIGHTEOUSNESS. 257 

ever remain so though he kill men again; — how is 
he obligated to future obedience? Faith is count- 
ed or imputed for righteousness, but faith works by 
love and love worketh no ill to his neighbor; there- 
fore love is the fulfilling of the law. 

Behold, an illustration of the phenomena so hard 
to comprehend namely, zeal for God or religion and 
wickedness keeping pace with it in all its degrees! 
The more the conscience is burdened with guilt, the 
more eagerly it may crave means of pardon ; and 
the more liable will it become to be imposed upon 
and zealous in following error. It seems wonderful 
at first view, that men can suppose that there is any 
merit or religion in killing persons they never knew 
and who never did them any harm. But when the 
conscience is agonized with guilt and assurance is 
given that pardon can be merited in war, the men, 
who love war and are warriors by profession can 
hardly be supposed to feel greatly shocked at the 
proposal, especially when made to them by those to 
whom they have submitted as guides to their con- 
science. The hero then goes to battle not only with 
usual hopes of victory, but whether he conquers or 
not with the full assurance of obtaining pardon for 
his sins and meriting heaven. How fearful the 
consequences of ignorance of God's righteousness! 
All may seem to begin fair. What objection can 
be taken to the merit of good works? How does 
the principle differ from the usual phrase; — the re- 
ward of virtue .? Can motives to virtue be placed 
22* 



258 DISCOURSE ELEVENTH. 

too high? But mark the sequel. Killing men as 
enemies of God is placed among the best and most 
meritorious of good works. Guilt too deep to be 
atoned for by any other merit may find forgiveness 
in fields of blood and carnage; cruel men may fight 
their way to heaven. Now a knowledge of God's 
righteousness destroys this whole illusion and error 
at once. For that righteousness demonstrates the 
fact, that there is no sacrificial righteousness or merit 
in any work or word or thought of sinners which can 
procure their pardon. The merit of Christ's death 
is in God's gift. If God was not in Christ, he could 
not reconcile us to God. All human works, good, 
bad or indifferent are destitute of atoning merit in 
the sight or judgment of God. 

"There is therefore now no condemnation to 
them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after 
the flesh but after the Spirit ; for the law of the 
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free 
from the law of sin and death. For what the law 
could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, 
God, sending his own Son, in the likeness of sinful 
flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh : that 
the righteousness of the (moral) law might be ful- 
filled in us, (not imputed to us as a sacrifice) who 
walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." So, 
God sent his own Son to do what sacrificial human 
laws could not do. 

Cincinnati, January, 1838. 



DISCOUESE TWELFTH. 



THE FAITH OF NOAH. 

By faith Noah, being 1 warned of God of things not seen as yet, 
moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house ; by the' 
which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteous- 
ness which is by faith. 

Hebretos xi, 7. 

Experiments and observations upon matter, 
show that its appearances, combinations and 
changes, may be traced to causes and laws of 
action, among which are attraction and repulsion. 
By the first, two or more bodies or particles of mat- 
ter unite ; by the second, they separate. When 
bodies are subject to the action of two opposite 
causes, it is found that those causes, seldom if ever 
can be made to act interchangeably, or that the re- 
sults are subject to chances or accidents, but that 
matter in similar circumstances, will always be at- 
tracted or repelled. 

Water under equal temperature continues fluid. 
But if it appears sometimes solid, and at oilier 
times aeriform, those changes are produced by cold 
and heat. Mind too, as well as matter, is found to 
undergo changes in its modes of action. Faith and 
unbelief affect it in a manner, in some respects, 
analagous to attraction and repulsion in matter. 



260 DISCOURSE TWELFTH. 

When the mind begins to act, or think, it is soon 
evident that some of its thoughts are true and some 
are false. These distinctions are marked and re- 
collected ; and as they increase in number and fre- 
quency, faith and unbelief become active and influ- 
ential, and combine and associate with the thoughts. 
We think of truths and believe them, and of false 
hoods and disbelieve them. But, we do not 
perceive, that faith and unbelief are mere accidents, 
or that they are the mere creatures of the will. 
There is, however, an intermediate state of the 
mind between these two, a sort of transition state, 
through which the mind passes from the one to the 
other, called doubt. Now, experience and obser- 
vation discover evidence of a law of action, in all 
these apparently complex cases. Doubt itself indi- 
cates the existence in the mind, of a capacity end 
a disposition to believe the truth. Why doubt, 
why seek for evidence, if faith is a matter of choice, 
or volition, and truth has no natural influence in 
determining it ? A man, who has any regard for his 
character, would be ashamed to say that he neither 
does nor will believe the truth, or that he is resolved 
to believe a falsehood. 

The Greeks relate an account of a man of the 
name of Pyrrhus, who maintained that a philoso- 
pher ought to doubt every thing, or believe nothing. 
Hence the name of a sect of philosophers and of 
their unbelief. And to the present time, a class of 
writers maintain, that in pursuit of truth, one must 



THE FAITH OF NOAH. 261 

begin by doubting every thing. This opinion in 
,the extreme is both unphilosophical and impracti- 
cable. Some things must be admitted to be true 
as a beginning , and some things must be hoped 
for as truth, to sustain the mind in search of truth. 
To assume that true religion has no existence, and 
then to set out to discover or obtain it, would be as 
preposterous as to attempt impossibilities or to dis- 
cover a non-entity. Those who seek to discover 
perpetual motion , would jiot certainly facilitate their 
researches, by doubt in its existence, or add to the 
probability of their success. An unbelieving mind 
has no affinity to the truth. Unbelief acts as a 
principle of repulsion. A truth, when believed to 
be false ; that is, not believed, cannot act upon the 
mind as a truth but as a falsehood. But the be- 
lieving a falsehood to be true, though it may induce 
the mind to act as though the falsehood were a 
truth, can have no influence over the nature and 
properties of the falsehood itself. Our thoughts 
can have no influence over facts. They cannot 
change something into nothing, nor create some- 

O O O 7 

thing out of nothing. They are not acted upon 
or called into action immediately, without the in- 
tervention of faith or unbelief, or of doubt. A 
man sees his friend : he has no doubt of his identity, 
nor of his friendship ; but he may see him under 
circumstances which may render his disposition or 
his ability to befriend him doubtful, and some fur- 
iher information may be necessary to remove these 



262 DISCOURSE TWELFTH. 

doubts, though there may have been no foundation 
in truth for them. The law of faith or confidence 
in this case, is only disturbed by adventitious 
causes. In every department and upon every sub- 
ject of knowledge, our faith, there is reason to 
think, would operate uniformly, if we could detect 
all the disturbing causes. Men of sagacious minds, 
by long experience in their peculiar callings, be- 
come in a high degree prophetic of results ; their 
faith is not apt to fail them. And nothing becomes 
more certain to their minds than, that a failure of 
usual results never can happen, by unsettling or 
reversing the laws of faith and unbelief in respect 
to the mind itself. 

But, in revealed religion, there is a sure word of 
prophecy to guide our faith and to mark out the 
great outlines. Many of these. predictions maybe 
retraced and corroborated. Thus if the prophecy, 
he that believeth shall be saved, and he that be- 
lieveth not shall be damned, — be true, some portion 
of its truth may be presumed to lie within the range 
of experience and observation. But the great value 
of these predictions is, that through the medium of 
our faith, they enable us to know them, before it 
be too late. But unbelief conducts the mind to no 
truth, by anticipation, while it rejects all known or 
discovered truths in the minds of others. " Ye will 
not believe, though a man declare it unto you." J j. 
What a proof of want of affinity to the truth ! J 

" By faith, Noah, being warned of God, of things 



THE FAITH OF NOAH. 263 

not seen as yet" &c. The predictions of the flood 
would not have moved Noah, if he had been an un- 
believer in the warnings of God, as the danger was 
yet invisible. The truth of the warning would 
have had no influence upon his mind, while it was 
under the influence of unbelief. This is self-evi- 
dent. Any man, by putting himself in the place of 
Noah, will perceive, that the effects of such a warn- 
ing upon his fears would be precisely answerable to 
his faith. Here is an example of motives and of 
emotions, about which so much has been written, 
and if it does not decide the question in favor of 
those who argue for the existence of both in reli- 
gion, it is not to be overlooked. The danger of ^the 
flood would have been no motive at all, if it had 
not been believed,- and it would have produced no 
emotion. This is evident from the conduct of the 
unbelieving world. They ate, they drank, — they 
planted, they builded, — they married, and were 
given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered 
into the ark, and the flood came and swept them all 
away. Now, if it were, as it is attempted to be 
proved, that men ought not to act religiously from 
motives of fear, and that all fear is selfish and 
slavish, then Noah was wrong, for he was moved 
with fear. When a truth is made known to the 
mind, the mind will naturally believe it, because it 
is a truth; but if the mind be under some action 
foreign to itself, that action may generate unbelief. 
But a belief of a real danger must produce fear, in- 



264 DISCOURSE T W E L F T H . 

dependently of reason or volition ; faith operating 
in this respect, upon the feelings as upon the 
senses, — directly. Our natures are constituted with 
a set of organs, which perform their functions with- 
out volition. If volition can interfere with the na- 
turally involuntary functions, and finally render 
them subservient to its control, converting use into 
second nature, still the first law is evident. The 
will is late, under favorable circumstances, in gain- 
ing dominion over the feelings which naturally be- 
long to its department. A real danger is foretold, — . 
Noah believes, — will his fears remain dormant un- 
til reason is consulted and dictates to the will, and 
the will wakes them into motion? This is not the 
common process in ourselves. Under faith or sense 
of danger, we are apt to be moved with fear. If 
the coming flood had given general and indubitable 
evidences of its approach, the fears of Noah would 
not have been alone. Were those antediluvians 
Polytheists 1 Had they become irreclaimably cor- 
rupt, from this or from some other cause ? Or if 
they believed in the true God, must not their faith 
have been dead ? It appears, at all events, that they 
were unbelievers, as it regarded the deluge, in a 
degree, that no warning from God, through Noah, 
could alarm them. Judging by analogy from what 
we do know, may we not conclude, that their er- 
rors in principle led to errors in practice, and that 
from political agency, these vices had become uni- 
versal ? Among the descendants of Noah such has 



THE FAITH OF NOAH. 265 

been the case. Noah escaped from the corruption 
of the old world, which was through lust. He be- 
lieved and feared, and was moved to action. He 
prepared an ark to the saving of his house. The 
unbelievers willed to be unbelievers ; willed not to 
fear, not to be moved to any precautionary meas- 
ures ; and thus, in effect, willed their own destruc- 
tion. So, we see how impotent human will is, in 
opposition to general or universal causes, or the 
truths which exhibit them. And we see how the 
mind may be given up to believe a lie. Noah be- 
lieved religiously ; he believed in prophecy. Reli- 
gious belief always includes a faith in prophecy. A 
belief, that the dry- land at a certain time will be 
overflowed with water, is not natural nor philosoph- 
ical. None of the causes of such an effect are evi- 
dent to the senses or to science. A deluge cannot 
be calculated to take place at a certain time, as an 
eclipse of the sun or the moon can ; for upon the sup- 
position that it is produced by natural causes, these 
causes lie hidden from finite human minds. Faith 
therefore, in such predicted phenomena or events 
must embrace the being of God or superhuman 
mind. Who is he that tells me, that the world will 
be drowned, and how I may save myself and fami- 
ly from the deluge? How does he know that it 
will be drowned ? Can he know it from the know- 
ledge of the past, or has he fore-knowledge? But 
knowledge of events of this kind belongs not to 
man, Many persons do not now believe the histo- 
23 



266 DISCOURSE TWELFTH. 

tory ; they do not believe it to be possible. Phi- 
losophers themselves first propagated the idea of 
its impossibilty, among the common people. But, 
they have now assumed the opposite extreme, — that 
there have been many deluges and may be more. 
They speak of old land disappearing and new land re- 
appearing. With these learned geologists, the flood 
of Noah is a mere fact; this submerging of land 
may be one among so many, and perhaps the last 
among them, on a great or general scale. A belief 
of a deluge, upon natural evidence, will, it is prob- 
able, become general among unlearned people, who 
have no religious belief, that it was foretold to 
Noah. For a long time, the argument most suc- 
cessfully used to discredit the deluge was, that if all 
the water in the atmosphere were to fall upon the 
earth, it would only be of a certain depth. But of 
late years, it has been discovered, that water itself 
is a compound substance. Philosophers have in 
consequence of new discoveries, become more cau- 
tious in attempting to fix the limits of possibility. 

But can the faith of Noah be defended or rescued 
from the imputation of superstition? It must be 
admitted that there is, in given cases, a tendency 
in the human mind to an excess of faith. Exam- 
ples of it, on a large scale, are frequent in history. 
The general spread of Polytheism, or of the belief 
that the universe is God, was, perhaps, among the 
primary causes of the excess of faith. What might 
have been, otherwise, natural or philosophical faith 



THE FAITH OF NOAH.. * 26T 

became religious faith. One among the general 
rules by which it is supposed a superstitious faith 
may be detected is, an entire disproportion between 
the cause assumed and the effects produced, or be- 
tween the means and the end; as, for instance, a 
revelation of a mere trifle, next to nothing; or, a 
display of divine power to produce effects which 
may be daily produced in the ordinary course of 
events, and which are of no general consequence. 
But the magnitude of the flood, and of the interests 
involved in it, are surely great enough, if any can 
be conceived to be so, to place it beyond (his excep- 
tion. It is now known that races of animals have 
become extinct. Is it not, therefore, to be inferred 
that the extinction of the race of men is also pos- 
sible? On the admission of a deluge, what could 
have prevented such an effect, especially if it came 
on unexpectedly, and without any great natural 
indications, or any intimation save a divine warn- 
ing' 1 Let the facts and the bearings of the history 
be admitted to approach to truth, and it will be dif- 
ficult to imagine how any family could have been 
saved without superhuman premonition, aifd some 
floating life-preserver. 

It is not now conceived to be necessary to the 
truth of the Scripture history of the flood, to sup- 
pose that all the dry land at present on the globe 
was above water before the deluge ; for it is known 
that much land has appeared since that period, as 
for instance, the alluvials of seas and rivers, and the 



268 DISCOURSE TWELFTH. 

matter ejected by volcanoes or raised by earth- 
quakes. The present Mount Vesuvius, near Na- 
ples, with its scoria and lava, until the time of 
Pliny, was a rich and beautiful vineyard. But 
this is among the smallest of volcanoes. It cannot, 
of course, be meant that the waters covered the tops 
of the mountains which have siuce been produced 
by fire. The highest mountains are volcanic. 
None other of the American continent are very 
high. Instances occur, of high lands which show 
signs of having been once the bed of the sea, the 
shells lying as they did when the fish lived in them. 
Noah lived in a part of what is now called central 
Asia. The land was elevated, but the flood cov- 
ered it deep. None of these events are naturally 
impossible, and are not, therefore, incredible. If 
the natural and religious parts of the narrative 
could be separated, and the natural parts be re- 
tained, the subject would be involved in greater 
difficulty. Which, for instance, is the most credi- 
ble — that God should reveal such a natural event 
some time before it came to pass, or that Noah 
alone snould have discovered it, and have been so 
confident of it as to make an accurate calculation 
of the time and to provide means for his preserva- 
tion ? No claims are set up in favor of Noah's su- 
perior philosophy; he is celebrated only for his 
piety. It is only said in effect that the prediction 
was true, and that the faith was true and produced 
a rational fear and precaution, not presumption nor 



THE FAITH OF NOAH. 269 

despair. Real danger when known should he re- 
ally feared, if it can, by any means, be avoided. 
A man may meet what he cannot avoid with forti- 
tude and resignation. Noah feared the flood, for 
he believed that it would be deep enough, and last 
long enough to drown all flesh. He believed that 
by building an ark he might save his house ; he 
was therefore moved with fear to prepare it before- 
hand. 

The physical and moral doctrine of emotions is 
the basis of religious experience. We cannot but 
think that the subject of experimental religion pro- 
ceeds upon general and uniform laws. Whatever 
we may think or believe not clearly and strongly 
and steadily enough to move to corresponding ac- 
tion, comes to nothing. We must be moved, and 
we must be moved by our feelings, though not on 
all occasions by one identical mode of them. It is 
not said that Noah was moved by love to prepare 
an ark, or by hope — or by desire — or by interest — 
but by fear. The circumstances of the case deter- 
mined the mode of his feelings. No other emotion 
could have been so well suited to this end. His be- 
lief in the divine warning was firm. The vastness, 
the universality of the threatened ruin were terribly 
sublime, and calculated to fill the imagination with 
fearful images. A heart that could remain un- 
moved or complacent in the contemplation of such 
a scene, is not to be envied. ' The sympathies of a 
benevolent heart will fear for others. Is it not won- 
23* 






$?0 DiSCO IT ftSE! TWELFTH. 

derful with what cold and philosophical formality 
certain good men can declaim against religions fears, 
with death and hell and all the judgments of God 
before them ? So did not the prophets ; so did not 
a Greater than the prophets. " It is a fearful thing 
to fall into the hands of the living God." This 
family was not to stand idly by and witness the 
surrounding destruction, but work out their salva- 
tion with fear. Their escape from the deluge was 
not to be wholly miraculous. The ark must be 
built and built in time ; delays would be dangerous. 
The law of self-preservation was brought into full 
action. 

Noah condemned the world by building the ark ; 
" and became the heir of righteousness which is by 
faith." The Scripture says, that Noah found grace 
ill the eyes of the Lord, that he was a just man and 
perfect in his generation and that he walked with 
God; — " Thus did Noah, according to all that God 
commanded him, so did he." These notices, are 
important as they relate to St. Paul's statement in 
the text; — by faith, he became heir of the righteous- 
ness which is by faith. All this did not prevent his 
most diligent attention to all the Lord command- 
ed him ; — >" So did he." Writers have represent- 
sd the Ark as the type of Christ. And it does an- 
swer in several points. The type and the antitype 
differed in this, — -that man made or provided the 
former,, and God the latter. This seems to be a 
general rule. If man made both or if God made 



T M fi F A t T H OP NO A H . 27 L 

both, there would of course be no principle to rep- 
resent. Why might not man invent and build a 
house to typify the house made without hauds eter- 
nal in the heavens? Because he has no instruc- 
tions how to do it. God who meant to give the Sa- 
viour could alone direct man how to make or use 
a type, and so perpetuate the faith and hope in the 
promised Saviour. Noah, not God made the typi- 
cal ark under God's directions, as Moses did the 
typical sacrifices. 

But it is of great importance to understand pre- 
cisely the meaning which St. Paul attaches to the 
righteousness of faith, of which Noah became heir. 
Was it according- to the meaning attached to the 
word by some persons, imputed righteousness? 
However the controversy may be settled on this de- 
bated question, we can perceive no direct evidence 
of the doctrine of abstract imputation in the eleventh 
chapter of the letter to the Hebrews. But if we 
wanted matter of fact evidence that faith works, we 
do not know where we could find more of it than 
in this chapter. The position is given, — that with- 
out faith it is impossible to please God, " for he that 
cometh unto God, must believe that he is, and that 
he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him." 
He therefore who belie yes that God is, but not that 
he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him, 
cannot please God. Now do not the examples of 
the faith of the ancient believers given in this chap- 
ter answer precisely to this position? All these 



272 DISCOURSE TWELFTH, 

canonical saints (so called) diligently sought to please 
God. The building of the ark was certainly not 
imputed to Noah. He did it according to all the 
Lord commanded him, so did he ; he prepared an 
ark to the saving of his house by which he con- 
demned the world, and became heir of the right- 
eousness which is by faith. What would he have 
become, if he had refused to do as the Lord com- 
manded him ? Why as the submerged world, an 
heir of a watery grave. The Apostle says of the 
Patriarchs, that " if they had been mindful of the 
country from whence they came out, they might 
have had opportunity to have returned/' thus show- 
ing that their pilgrimage was not compulsory. They 
pleased God in desiring and seeking a better coun- 
try, that is a heavenly country. The actions which 
are coupled with the faith of those ancient belieyers 
were of the most difficult and trying kind, and prove 
the mighty efficacy of their faith. But the leading and 
prevalent idea in each and every case is that their faith 
was in the promised Messiah. They did not live 
to receive or to realize in this world the fulfilment 
of the promises ; — " that they without us should not 
be made perfect." The words, — " God having pro- 
vided some better things for us," — seem to answer 
to, — " Blessed are your eyes for they see, and your 
ears for they hear things, which kings and prophets 
and righteous men desired to see and hear, and died 
before they came to pass." Noah by surviving the 
destruction of the world as the only believer, was 



THE FAITH OF NOAH. 273 

the heir, the inheritor of all the righteousness of or 
by faith. The promises made to all the antedilu- 
vian fathers concerning the Messiah would have all 
been lost, without the faith of this man, who found 
grace in the eyes of the Lord and walked with God. 
Had Noah died and the world been spared the faith 
and righteousness would have been lost, the promise 
that the seed of the worcrn should bruise the ser- 
pent's head would have failed. Noah was the na- 
tural descendant of Seth, the heir and the partaker 
of the faith after Abel the martyr. In their ex- 
treme state of infidel depravity it is reasonable to 
suppose that Shem, the oldest son of Noah, in case of 
his father's death, would not have been able to res- 
cue the family. 

The world is condemned and drowned. The 
righteousness of faith floats and survives. Who in- 
herits the faith of Seth and Enoch and Methuselah ? 
Noah. Who was the heir of the depositary of the 
promises or the primitive bible, which contained the 
records of redeeming grace ? Noah. Did his per- 
sonal righteousness answer to his faith ? It did : he 
was a just man and righteous in his generation. 
But was not the personal righteousness of Christ to 
come imputed unto Noah ? The Scripture gives 
no direct affirmative answer. If the same question 
were asked of Abraham we could extract an an- 
swer from the epistle to the Romans. ( ' Abraham 
believed God, and it was counted (imputed) unto 
him for righteousness. " The reference is to Gene- 



274 DISCOURSE TWELFTH. 

sis. " This (Eliezer) shall not be thine heir ; but 
he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall 
be thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad, 
and said, Look now toward heaven and tell the 
stars, if thou be able to number them : and he said 
unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed 
in the Lord ; and he counted it to him for righteous- 
ness." Here is St. Paul's view of the subject. 
Abraham " staggered not at the promise of God 
through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving 
glory to God ; and being fully persuaded that what 
he had promised, he was able also to perform. And 
therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. 
Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it 
was imputed to him ; but for us also, to whom it 
shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised 
up Jesus our Lord from the dead ; who was de- 
livered for our offences, and was raised again for our 
justification. " If these Scriptures do not illustrate 
the righteousness of faith, the letter to the Phiiippi- 
ans might be quoted ; — " That I may win Christ, 
and be found in him, not having mine own right- 
eousness, which is of the law, but that which is 
through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which 
is of God by faith." This comes near to the lan- 
guage of the text. But is the righteousness which 
is through the faith of Christ synonymous with the 
meaning commonly affixed to imputed personal 
righteousness ? If the term faith were taken out of 
the passage, would not its meaning be affected? 



THE FAITH OFNOAH. XiO 

For example, — " but that (the righteousness) which 
is of Christ, the righteousness which is of God." 
These expresssions are not surely identical in mean- 
ing with or without the words, " through the faith " 
and " by faith ;" for if they are, then those words 
must be redundant. But we know that faith stands 
opposed to its antagonist unbelief, and that when 
faith yields the mind slides into doubt, and its tenden- 
cy 7 to unbelief can only be checked by the recovery of 
faith. " Holding fast faith and a good conscience." 
" Cast not away your confidence which hath great 
recompense of reward." 

We have assumed for faith a physical and a men- 
tal influence leading to moral consequences. If 
there were neither truth nor error or if all distinc- 
tions between them could be confounded in the 
mind, there would be no faith nor unbelief and no use 
for them. They would have no objects to exercise 
them or to be exercised upon. Eyes are of no use 
without light, nor ears without sound. Light and 
sound are the only objects suited to these senses. If 
we could ascertain the existence of any new natural 
faculty without knowing the use of it, we might be 
sure that it must answer some end. We are com- 
pelled by analogy to conclude that falsehood or il- 
lusion can be no more an object or an end of faith 
than that eyes were made for darkness. Those who 
deny the truth of all religion by this analogy infer 
that there is no true faith. And the conclusion 
will follow if the premises be admitted, just as the 



276 DISCOURSE TWELFTH. 

denial of all light would involve die denial of all 
eyes, or the denial of all percussions and vibrations 
of air would involve the denial of the human ear. 
Now the mind by its mere power of perception may 
perceive things in a general and indistinct manner, 
as the eye may see things without distinguishing 
them. The materials for knowledge and for faith 
are thus furnished at first, and the process of Ioioav- 
ing and believing commences. The rainbow was 
visible to all the family of Noah, but it became 
connected with faith by a promise, in consequence 
of which it was made a sign or pledge; and in so 
far as it answered that end, it dissipated (he fears 
of another deluge, fears not easily overcome by 
reason, by those who had witnessed one, or had 
witnessed its effects still strongly marked on all 
around them. Faith, then, has truth for its object 
and iighteousness for its end,; and so is counted for 
righteousness. Faith, without truth, or in error 
would have no tendency to obtain or to produce 
goodness. It is, as usually called, the instrumental 
cause of justification, having the true meritorious 
cause of justification for its reliance. All the great 
and good things, promised in the gospel, are found- 
ed in truth, and are through faith, — through sancti- 
fication of the spirit and belief of the truth. When 
a truth is perceived in the mind, and becomes in- 
tense enough to determine the will strongly and 
steadily, the maxim is almost realized; — " I can do 
all things through Christ that strengthened! me." 



THE FAITH OF NOAH. 277 

All things are possible to him that believeth." 
Faith, then, becomes a righteous principle, and ihe 
effect or action of it corresponds to it in kind. So 
great a degree of faith in a promise will produce hope ; 
and in a threatening or a warning it will produce fear. 
But if faith, though true in kind be so weak and 
unsteady as not to determine the will, it is ineffect- 
ual and unproductive of corresponding effects and 
is said to be dead. Noah was the heir of righteous- 
ness. This is the circumstance in which his faith 
and his history are peculiar. His faith was in com- 
mon with the faith of all these recorded believers, 
faith in the truth and power and grace of God. It 
accommodated itself to the peculiar case of each in- 
dividual, and prepared the way for the coming of 
the great Deliverer. The faith of Abraham placed 
him in the relative condition of the Father of the 
Faithful, instead of that of heir. It had peculiar 
bearings on the resurrection. In this relation his 
faith is counted or imputed for righteousness. There- 
fore it was not written for his sake alone, but for 
ours also, if we believe that God raised up our Lord 
and Saviour from the dead. " Therefore sprang 
there even of one, and him as good as dead " &c.— 
" Being fully persuaded that what he had promised 
he was also able to perform." Noah must have 
been a public man possessed of wealth and power, 
as it is not otherwise easy to conceive how he could 
have built so great a structure and procured ani- 
mals and the means of sustaining them. Was he 
24 



278 DISCOURSE TWELFTH. 

not a King, one of the last of the antediluvian 
Kings who worshipped the true God? What could 
the piety of private men have accomplished in sue i 
a crisis ? 

From the premises we feel warranted in coming 
to the conclusion, that the faith of this man of two 
worlds, this connecting link in the chain of human 
existence, was productive of practical religion ; that 
it is a bright example of ancient believers' working, 
a fine specimen of antediluvian piety, showing how 
faith then wrought by works and by works was 
made perfect. We have stated our view of the ac- 
tion of faith upon the will, when it is strengthened, 
settled and stablished in truth, and we might 
have added, — supposed truth, — for the law of faith 
is the same in both real and imaginary truths. Sin- 
cerity in error arid sincere faith can exist together 
in fallible minds. Hence zeal in error is so fre-_ 
quently met with. But in Noah's case there was 
no error. The danger was not misapprehended. 
The most fearful parts of the prediction were all lit- 
erally fulfilled. Nothing therefore short of strong 
practical faith could have enabled one single man 
to escape the universal ruin of the world. The 
promised Saviour was no doubt the Alpha and 
Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and 
ending of Noah's faith ; that is, he was its Au- 
thor and its Finisher. This Patriarch could do all 
things through Christ strengthening him ; but he 
must have had a mind and a body to be strengthen- 



THE FAITH OP NOAH 



m 



ed, and that strength must have operated conform- 
ably to the laws of his human constitution. The 
question whether faith be the gift of God has been 
discussed as too many other questions pertaining to 
religion have been, upon the assumption that salva- 
tion is according to an immediate and not a mediate 
system. The affirmative takes it for granted that 
God made the human mind without faith or power 
to believe, and that God gives the power to believe 
by an immediate agency of the Holy Spirit ; and 
therefore not unfrequently they who are of this opin- 
ion say, that a man can no more believe than he 
can make a world, and that the grace which imparts 
faith is as irresistible as creative power. 

In opposition to this theory of immediate divine 
power, we have argued that faith belongs primarily 
to the first creation, and not exclusively to the new 
creation or regeneration ; that our minds are so con- 
stituted that our thoughts must take on one or the 
other of these three modes, nam el y, — faith or unbe- 
lief or doubt; that a change in the mind from one 
to another of these modes neither implies nor re- , 
quires any new faculty or attribute ; and that to 
make or produce faith evidence must be used. But 
evidence does not act upon the mind by a mere me- 
chanical necessity ; it is not perceived nor under- 
stood because it is near or present. Many causes, 
physical, natural and moral, may so intervene as to 
obscure or prevent evidence from operating on the 
judgment and will. And any countervailing cause 



280 DISCOURSE TWELFTH. 

whether direct or indirect may help our unbelief or 
assist the mind to overcome its doubts. More evi- 
dence may be thus accumulated and may add to 
the force of that which already exists. If a well 
disposed mind understands any truth and finds it 
difficult fully to believe, it hates the causes of its 
doubts and seeks and employs all means to remove 
them. Faith then being a natural action of the 
mind, nothing- could be gained by wishing or en- 
deavoring as some do to believe without evidence. 
In the absence of evidence and under a disposition 
to do without it, factitious means must be used to 
gain or to keep the confidence of the mind ; in other 
words, it must be deceived or imposed upon. God 
may and often does give faith by giving evidence. 
So the gift of the Holy Spirit, while Peter was tell- 
ing Cornelius words whereby he should be saved, 
gave or produced faith or belief, that unto the Gen- 
tiles God also had granted repentance unto life. 
And in an indirect manner he gave faith to Noah ? 
by foretelling the deluge . This warning or predic- 
tion was not first given to an unbelieving world, 
which would have required all the intermediate 
evidence to produce faith in God, before they could 
admit of any evidence that it was God who warned 
them. By miraculous evidence faith became a gift 
of God to St. Paul. It is evident that the same kind 
and degree of evidence would not have produced 
faith in the antediluvians, which confirmed the faith 
of Noah. And in the case of Paul, ignorance made 



YHE FAITH OP NOAH. 281 

a more feeble resistance to evidence of the truth of 
the gospel than malice would have done. Men do 
not require the same amount of evidence from their 
friends as they do from their enemies. When things 
are not seen as yet or not foreseen, conscience can- 
not see or foresee them any more than the eye or 
the mind. Whatever is concealed in the future 
must be addressed to our faith in some form of evi- 
dence or in some relative connection with evidence. 
Paul revealed a secret or hidden mystery which had 
been hid from the beginning of the world, namely, 
■ — that the Gentile believers should in all respects be 
fellow heirs of the blessings of the gospel with the 
Jews. But while this important disclosure produced 
no faith in the minds of his countrymen, it had no 
influence upon their consciences. Before they be- 
lieved the revelation made to St. Paul to be true, 
they would not and could not in conscience eat 
with the Gentiles or new converts from among 
them. 

Noah, in the long and arduous work of preparing 
ihe ark and acting the part of a preacher of righ- 
teousness to a degenerate and irreclaimable race of 
men, was sustained by the evidence of a peculiar 
prophecy superadded to the evidences of his com- 
mon faith and consequent pious and holy life. As 
the crisis approached this motive influence must 
have been quickened, and we can readily conceive 
that his entrance into the Ark must have produced 
an indescribable effect upon his feelings. But every 
24* \ 



282 DISCOURSE TWELFTH. 

believer, who gives all diligence to make his calling 
and election sure, in a certain degree condemns the 
ungodly and becomes an heir of the glorious rewards 
of faith in heaven. 

Cincinnati, January, 1838, 



DISCOURSE THIRTEENTH. 

THE FAITH OF MOSES. 



By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called 
the son of Pharoah's daughter ', choosing rather to suffer affliction 
with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a sea- 
son 5 esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the 
treasures in Egypt : for he had respect unto the recompence of the 
reward. 

Hebreios, xi. 24—26. 

Moses is reckoned among the believers in the 
Messiah to come ; therefore, it is said, he esteemed 
the reproach of Christ greater riches than the 
treasures of Egypt. The recompense of reward 
was in heaven. Had there been no such reward 
or if he had had no respect to it, his estimation 
might have been in favor of the treasures of Egypt. 
But the recompense of reward could only be anti- 
cipated by faith. It is also said, that by faith Mo- 
ses endured as seeing him who is invisible. Faith 
produces in our minds effects answering to sight. 
The mind through this medium perceives secret 
or hidden things and things futuie. Are we told 
of mines of gold in particular places, and do we be- 
lieve our informer? The intervening earth is no 
impediment to our apprehension. Faith lends its 
realizing view. The riches of Christ were not 
only invisible in their nature, but were future. 



284 DISCOURSE THIRTEENTH. 

Faith then looks beyond as well as within the veiL 
The faith of Moses is not to be identified with that 
of his parents. They saw that he was a proper 
child and acted accordingly. But when he came 
to years of maturity, his parents could no longer 
believe for him. He had the power and right to 
choose. One of the motives which were set before 
him to determine his choice, was an admission to 
the privileges of an adopted son of Pharoah's 
daughter with Egyptian treasures and the pleasures 
of sin for a season. On the other hand, there were 
sufferings with the people of God and final and 
eternal rewards in heaven. Between these two 
his mind was free to choose. Both were present 
to the mind, the former through the senses and the 
latter through faith. The loss of the first could 
only be consequent upon the choice of the second. 
He might have either, but both together he could 
not have. Cases may and do occur without such 
alternatives. Men may have the treasures and 
riches of this world and go to heaven. It is not 
the lot of all Christians to have their faith so tested, 
as to be compelled to lose all to gain all. They 
may have all the things of this world and Christ 
too. But when called to forsake all, faith can yield 
all. This trial of faith was perhaps even greater 
than martyrdom itself. In every age and country, 
men have been found who would sooner sacrifice 
life than make the sacrifices which Moses did. It 
should seem that Moses in virtue of his adoption by 



THE FAITH OP MOSES. 285 

Pharoah's daughter, ranked as an Egyptian prince 
of the blood. 

The suffering with t,he people of God must be 
now, in this world ; the recompense of reward was 
not to be enjoyed until after death. The physical 
and intellectual action of faith and its intellectual 
action upon the moral faculties are strongly exem- 
plified in this case. There is an unusual grandeur 
and sublimity in all the events in the history of 
Moses. The edict of Pharoah for the destruction 
of the Hebrew infants, it is the opinion of certain 
writers, was only intended to reach the children of 
the principal families. Might not oracles have 
been given out, that some descendant of these 
tribes of bondmen might endanger the reigning dy- 
nasty ? This w^ould have been according to an- 
cient usage. But it is plain, that the parents of 
Moses did believe in the deliverance of the Israel- 
ites from Egyptian bondage. We concur in opin- 
ion with those who think that there was nothing 
casual in the time and place of the exposure of their 
child ; that the times of the princess were regular 
in her visits to the river, at or near ihe same place 
for the purpose of religious ablution. The Nile 
was evidently the sacred river of the Egyptians. It 
may then be supposed, that the mother meant that 
her child should fall into the hands of Pharoah's 
daughter. Might she not have had some knowl- 
edge of the character of the princess? Probably 
these facts were concealed from the king. The 



286 DISCOURSE THIRTEENTH. 

form of adoption in Eastern countries accounts for 
the phrase ; — " and he became her son." This se- 
cured to the child an Egyptian education. His 
mother by adoption might not have lived to wit- 
ness his voluntary adherence to the religion of his 
true parents. Stephen says, that he was forty years 
old when he visited his brethren. It is therefore 
probable, that the king in whose reign he was born 
might have been no longer on the throne. Ste- 
phen also adds, that Moses supposed his country- 
men or brethren would have recognised him as 
their deliverer. But forty years more elapsed in a 
state of exile from the country, before his attempt 
proved successful. And a third period of forty 
years terminated his labors and life on the East bank 
of the Jordan. Could Moses have sustained his 
hopes and his labors through so extended a period 
without faith, or with a faith answering as soma 
suppose it does to a dreamy opinion? 

The first effects of r$is faith were in and over 
himself, in enabling him to rise above his own im- 
mediate personal interests and natural propensities 
for the pleasures of sin, and to withdraw from the 
family into which he had been adopted. Here 
was experience or heart- work. Honor, wealth 
and the pleasures of sin include the great tempta- 
tions to depart from the high courses of virtue, and 
must have operated with great force by their mag- 
nitude, by the age of the man, and by contrast with 
dishonor, poverty and suffering. He refused to be 



THE FAITH OF MOSES, 287 

called the son of Pharoah's daughter. He re- 
nounced both title and estate, things which go toge- 
ther in hereditary monarchies and the former of 
which no one retains long who loses the latter. 
The pleasures of sin under the age of forty in vi- 
gorous and healthy constitutions, are naturally in- 
tense. All the lawful restraints are loosened by 
sin. Physical and moral laws limit excitability and 
excitement in various ways ; but sin aims to in- 
crease both infinitely and promises to do it while 
honor and wealth furnish the means. Laws in ab- 
solute governments are made by the powerful and 
the wealthy, not to govern themselves but others. 
In Egypt and in all ancient monarchies, the heads 
of the priesthood were princes. Under such a sys- 
tem, the people of (the true) God in a state of poli- 
tical bondage must have been subject to unbound- 
ed contempt. To exchange princely grandeur, to 
suffer affliction with such a people, admitted no 
compromise between pride and humility. The two 
extremes were fully in view. Hypocrisy itself 
could have no place in such a condition. The 
costs need not be counted nor the strength of tht 
sides estimated ; they intruded themselves upon the 
mind. 

Now the writers who extol the faith of Moses 
most, are most disposed to refer it all to immediate 
grace and to miracles and to make little account of 
means and secondary causes. But did not Moses 
learn the elements of the true religion of his ances- 



288 DISCOURSE THIRTEENTH. 

tors, by oral instruction and from books put into 
his hands by his parents? He knew his parentage 
and he knew their language ; could he have re- 
mained ignorant of their religion with his mother 
for his nurse ? In those times, those who could 
read their mother tongue must needs know their 
mothers' religion, for history and poetry were all 
religious. We think we see indications to induce 
a belief, that the faith of the parants of Moses, his 
faith and the faith of Daniel were derived in part 
in a similar manner. Daniel it is said calculated 
the dates of the prophecies of Jeremiah, and ascer- 
tained the approaching termination of the captivity. 
But it has been made a question, whether the Patri- 
archs understood the art of writing. We take it for 
granted that they did ; and that the book of Gene- 
sis was in the hands of the parents of Moses, and 
that they and he calculated the prophecy made to 
Abraham of the Egyptian bondage, and were per- 
suaded in their own minds that the four hundred 
years were approaching to a close. If such were 
the facts, then faith came to Moses by hearing and 
hearing by the word of God. Moses might have 
transcribed the book of Genesis or re-edited it : and 
so it might have been called his edition and have 
been bound up with the other four books which 
carry on the history to the end of his life. The 
book itself has all the marks of an original prose 
composition. The style is much more primitive 
than that of Moses in the book of Deuteronomy. 



THE FAITH OF MOSES. 289~ 

It is Hebrew not Egyptian. If we look into the 
book of Psalms we shall find poetic narratives of 
ancient history which may be compared with this 
original prose, but nothing resembling the poetry of 
the Psalms is to be found in the first bock of Mo- 
ses. Had Moses written the original Genesis, we 
feel persuaded he would have made the language 
his own. Had he recast the original into poetry, 
the poetry would kave been like his own for he 
was a poet too. These remarks are all intended to 
corroborate the opinion that Moses had the written 
prophecy respecting the Egyptian bondage. Hav- 
ing the incipient bible in his hand, he compared 
facts with predictions and also times and dates. 
" And he (God) said unto Abraham, Know of a 
surety, that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land 
that is not theirs and shall serve them ; and they 
shall afflict them four hundred years ; and also, that 
nation whom they shall serve will I judge, and af- 
terwards they shall come out with great substance. " 
We mean, that Moses read these words as they 
were written in a book, not received them by ver- 
bal tradition, and that he believed them as Daniel 
did the writings of Jeremiah. Jacob and Joseph 
both died in Egypt. Jacob was carried to Ca 
naan and buried. And Joseph at his death by 
faith made mention of the departure of the chil- 
dren of Israel, and gave commandment concern- 
ing his bones. These circumstances too were 
probably matter of record and so known by Mo- 
25 



290 DISCOURSE THIRTEENTH. 

ses ; for — " Joseph took an oath of the children 
of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and 
ye shall carry up my bones from hence." Well, 
if Moses was inspired to commit these traditions 
to writing for the first time, he knew them ; or if 
they had been written and he read them he knew 
them : but however he came to the knowledge he 
not only knew but believed what he knew. 

We spend more time on these points than may 
geem necessary, in consideration of the manner in 
which historical faith (so called) is sometimes un- 
dervalued. In books and sermons we read and 
hear of the inemcacy of historical faith, at the same 
time too that written revelation is maintained and 
defended ! Now what is the bible but a historical 
record or a history ? When men are called upon 
to believe for themselves, can they believe any 
thing for themselves that is not written in the bi- 
ble? And when present faith is urged — believing 
now — it cannot have any influence upon the ob- 
jects of faith. If experimental religion were not 
historically true, how could believing make it true? 
A promise may be truly recorded ; but it is not 
truly fulfilled until the fulfilment answers to there- 
cord. The difficulty we suspect lies chiefly in the 
understanding ; the truth is not clearly apprehend- 
ed and the mind becomes confused. Let a person 
be called upon to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, 
and let him repty that he cannot. Why can he 
net believe? Is it because be cannot believe the 



THE FAITH OF MOSES. 291 

history to be true ? And why can he not believe the 
history to be true ? The fact is he may have been 
rather discouraged from believing than encouraged 
to believe it. Little or no pains may have been 
taken to make the history plain, or to exhibit its 
evidence in order to remove doubts. The adage is, 
that truth is truth all the world over. Whatever is 
true in the bible or in history, cannot be other- 
wise any where else, nor at any other time. Will 
a man say that he believes it is scripturally or his- 
torically true, that Christ tasted death for every 
man or died for all men, but that he cannot believe 
he died for him? The reverse on examination 
will be found to be the case. The difficulty origi- 
nates in some defect of the faith in the history. 

The faith of Moses was based on history ; much 
of the evidence of it was historical. But there is 
a propensity in the minds of those who contemplate 
faith to make themselves its Alpha and Omega. 
But faith in written revelation is progressive, — 
" from faith to faith," — from the faith of Abraham 
to the faith of Moses. The former believed the 
bondage would be four hundred years ; and the lat- 
ter believed that it had been nearly that time. The one 
believed the prophecy, and the other believed it was 
about to be fulfilled. If the anticipation was true, the 
consummation could not be false. But faith may be 
false and involve the mind in error. True. Many 
instances of false faith in true scripture have been 
detected. Notwithstanding the goodness of the 



292 DISCOURSE THIRTEENTH. 

data and of the evidence of Moses' faith, it was se- 
verely tested. His brethren were the first to discre- 
dit his mission. Pew if any examples occur in the 
experience of those whose faith proves to be true, 
in which it has not been tried as gold is tried in the 
fire. It is generally by providential incidents that 
faith is tested. But in the hands of Providence un- 
believers accomplish nothing except as instruments 
of ruin. After the failure of the first attempt, the 
future deliverer of Israel spends forty years in exile 
from Egypt ; he returns from this pilgrimage not 
only better prepared for his work, but he finds also 
matters much better prepared for him to work upon. 
Men who are so schooled and so employed as in- 
struments of God, need much historical faith. 
And in the history which furnished the objects of 
Moses' faith analogies were well sustained. The 
long probations of the faith of Abraham, Isaac and 
Jacob, were not exceeded by the probation of the 
faith of this believer. 

It appears that idolatry first established itself in 
cities which it made seals of power and wealth and 
learning. It progressed slowly in the country, ex- 
cept by conquest. Terah and Abraham found an 
asylum in Upper Mesopotamia from the idolatry of 
Ur of Chaldea. Arabia furnished a similar retreat 
for Moses. The dynasty of kings at the time of the 
Exodus may have been in the highest degree idola- 
trous, and it is conjectured from the words,— " for 
this purpose have I raised up," — that it might have 



1' Hi; faith of Moses. 293 

superseded some old family by usurpation or con- 
quest. But the disasters at the Red Sea seem to 
have prevented the nation from attempting any con- 
quests on the East of that gulf for a length of time. 
The Israelites remained unmolested within reach* 
ing distance of Egypt, and in one instance actually 
on its borders. The Egyptian education of Moses 
and his initiation into the Mysteries enabled him ful- 
ly to understand the history, nature and consequent 
ces of idolatry, and qualified him in an eminent de- 
gree to legislate against it. His faith required the 
utmost measure of attainable evidence to sustain 
him in this most arduous and complex labor, and 
to check the excessive propensities of the people to- 
wards the visible Gods they had so long been famil- 
iar with in the house of their bondage. How can 
any man who contemplates the movements and the 
labors of Moses, indulge in declamation against his- 
torical faith ? What other cause, so much as the 
want of this kind of faith among these politically 
enslaved tribes, rendered their emancipation and 
reformation so difficult? All experience and ob- 
servation show how difficult it is, either to obtain or 
to retain faith in conflicts with the passions and ap- 
petites without the aid of historical evidence and ar- 
guments. Those teachers and instructors who di- 
rect men to look within jhemselves for all their re- 
sources and means to conquer (he allied enemies in 
the fight of faith, can hardly fail to leave their pu- 
pils exposed as it were to be out-flanked if not sur* 
2-5* 



^94 DISCOURSE THIETEENTH. 

rounded. The whole history of (he ancestors of 
Moses from the time they left their native country 
in obedience to the divine command to become 
strangers and pilgrims, furnish evidence to sustain 
his faith, and thus enabled him to succeed in this 
perilous enterprise. Those Patriarchs and their 
descendants in the line through which Christ was 
to come according to the flesh, must first survey the 
land in which the Deliverer was to be born and have 
it confirmed to them by promise ; then at the end 
of a given time they were to take possession of it 
by conquest. Had Moses been inspired to know 
things past, present, and to come after the manner 
of intuition, all external or relative or corresponding 
evidence would have been unnecessary, for faith 
would have been unnecessary; he could have 
walked by knowledge as by sight. It is not for us 
to say that the human mind is incapable of such in- 
tuitive action and consequent certainty ; but we 
venture to infer from the operation of evidence and 
of faith in the mind, that it does not so act. There 
is not perhaps one example in the bible of a revela- 
tion or an inspiration without external signs or ev- 
idence, without some proof beyond the mind itself 
to confirm its belief. Moses himself needed these 
kinds of external evidences. An adventitious meet- 
ing with his brother according to a prediction, is an 
instance. One of the strongest proofs of the truth 
of God is therefore the fulfilment of what has been 
foretold. All the false Gods are challenged to give 



THE f AITH OF MOSES. 295 

such proofs of foreknowledge. And the testimony 
of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. The influence 
of the Scripture upon the faith of Christians shows 
how important historical or recorded prophecy is to 
faith ; for with all their mistakes and errors respect- 
ing its meaning, with all their enthusiasm, in some 
mode or other they all find it necessary to resort to 
this common standard. The reason is very obvious. 
The prediction gains in historical character rather 
than loses by the duration of its period. If the 
prediction of the Egyptian bondage had limited it 
to forty years instead of four hundred, its credibility 
would have been weakened as one generation of 
men might have co-operated to bring it to pass. — 
But in the longer space the prescient mind is more 
evident. Indeed the only ground of doubt is, 
whether it ever was foretold. 

In cases like this of Moses the first effects of faith 
should be in the believer himself. There are in- 
stances in which demoralizing causes do not imme- 
diately suspend or destroy the effects of great intel- 
lectual or physical operations. There are for ex- 
ample traits in the character of Mahomet irreconcil- 
able with personal virtue ; but though they were 
known to his followers, the success of his arms 
which these traits had no direct tendency to impede 
sustained the confidence of those followers in the 
battle field. But the first movement of Moses proved 
to him that all calculations on military force must 
prove fallacious. His attempt to vindicate the per- 



296 DISCOURSE THIRTEEN fS^ 

sonal injury offered to one of his own friends was 
betrayed by this very man. The Egyptian probably 
was a task-master or an overseer. Moses might 
have inquired into (he cause of offence and have 
attempted to use argument, and this might have 
exasperated the officer and produced a personal con- 
test. The Hebrew makes no secret of the fact, nor 
his countrymen of their jealousy of this new friend. 

But the future leader and law-giver of Israel's sons 
Was already morally qualified for the moral part of 
his work ; faith had wrought self-denial, and it is 
only by self-denial that we can gain and secure self- 
confidence or sincerity as moral or religious teachers 
and leaders. The deliverance of this people from the 
house of their bondage was only a preliminary step. 
Political freedom in a state of barbarism or in a state 
of idolatry would not have prepared the way of the 
Lord (the Messiah,) nor have made his paths straight. 
The appointed law giver who is to give laws to pro- 
mote and to maintain the knowledge and worship of 
the true God and the hopes of a coming Redeemer, 
must himself give some proof to his own conscience a3 
well as to others that he has the root of the mattec 
in him. He must show his faiih by his works of 
self-denial, and especially by denying the sin that 
doth most easily beset him or men in his condition. 

When men tell of what they will do or will not 
do in untried conditions, (hey gain little of the con- 
fidence of men of wisdom and experience. The 
Apostle begins his account of the faith of Moses 



THE F4ITH OP MOSES. 297 

with his experience and not with his actions ; ac- 
tions or external fruits follow. " By faith he for- 
sook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king : for 
he endured, as seeing him who is invisible. Through 
faith he kept the passover and the sprinkling of 
blood, lest he that destroyed the first born should 
touch them. By faith he passed through the Red 
Sea as by dry land, which the Egyptians assaying 
to do were drowned." Now had all this been first, 
and had he afterwards disowned his relation to the 
daughter of a king and disclaimed the pleasures of 
sin and spurned the treasures of Egypt, the usual 
order of practice and experience would have been 
inverted. But as the facts now stand, (speaking 
after the modern manner) he appears as a convert- 
ed man, he has experienced religion, his heart is 
changed. Like another Paul then, we see Moses 
not counting all things but loss after he had won 
Christ but that he might win him. It is well said 
that, — " hope that is seen is not hope ; for what a 
man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?" So, it is 
no proof of faith to retain things till we can get or 
have gotten a substitute for them. Moses too might 
have said ; Not as though I had already attained the 
recompense of reward. When he endeavored to 
conciliate his contending brethren, he had made all 
the great voluntary sacrifices of honors, of sinful 
pleasures and of riches, but forty years remained to 
test his patience and perseverance. Did he live all 
that time in unavailing regrets of a hasty resolution 



298 DISCOURSE THIRTEENTH. 

prompted by ambition, sighing for all he had thus 
thrown away and lost forever? Or did his God and his 
conscience bear testimony to the secret devotions of 
his heart, and that he felt no regrets for the volun- 
tary surrenders he had made in behalf and for the 
sake of what he believed to be the cause of truth? 
He lived to be a better and a happier man, and be- 
came as it were r doubly qualified to prosecute his 
great work. 

Among all the believers who are quoted in the 
eleventh chapter of the letter to the Hebrews, no 
one perhaps had his faith modified more in accord- 
ance to the faith of Christians, and'especially those 
who are providentially called to act in public and 
in highly responsible stations. He had to deny 
himself and to take up his cross. His own personal 
religion became necessary as a qualification for his 
ministry, and to enable him to suffer affliction with 
the people of God. Without faith, it would have 
been impossible for him to have pleased God by 
obeying him ; for it would have been impossible 
for'him to have obeyed, as all his motive agency 
was inward and all his motive objects future. In 
his situation an unbeliever could not at first have 
acted even the hypocrite. Every power of his soul 
must have been paralyzed in despair. 

We have shown at some length, in how great 
a degree the faith of Moses must have partaken of 
the historical ; and yet (so to speak) how powerful- 
ly it acted on the inner man, effecting instrumen- 



THE FAITH OF MOSES. 299 

telly a change in moral sentiment and volition an- 
swering in some respects to what is called conver- 
sion. And in this, we have to argue that it is the 
truth which gives the effect ; and that the opinion 
that the letter of the truth is nothing is an erroneous 
opinion or a misapprehension of the nature of the 
case. Here we see that the letter instead of being 
obscure and dead derives efficacy from the very age 
of the prophecy, and the remoteness of its final ac- 
complishment in the promised Messiah. " In thy 
seed, shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." 
This promise is believed as the promise of him, 
who it is impossible should lie. The hope that re- 
poses upon faith is an anchor to the soul both sure 
and steadfast. Let written truth be well understood 
(and what form of truth can be better under- 
stood ?) and let it be fully believed ; and that love 
of honor and riches and pleasure which is opposed 
to it must be deeply rooted in the heart indeed that 
cannot be made to yield to it. In fact, the faith 
seems to yield first when the effect fails. The Lord 
prayed for Peter that his faith might not fall. He 
that believeth not shall be damned. " By faith 
Moses, when he was come to } 7 ears, refused to be 
called the son of Pharoah's daughter, choosing ra- 
ther to suffer affliction with the people of God, than 
to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season ; esteeming 
the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures 
in Egypt." The faith of Moses is more worthy of no- 
tice, from the consideration that ho. was of the tribe 



300 DISCOURSE THIRTEENTH. 

of Levi, whose birth-right had been transferred to 
Judah the next younger brother. His tribe then 
was not to be reckoned in the genealogy of the 
Messiah. Why was not one of the tribe of Judah 
selected to lead in this great cause ? Ts this idea 
referred to in the expression; — "Moses was faithful 
in all his house as a servant?" Did Moses so re- 
gard himself? This is probable, and if true aug- 
ments his faith. No man could have had his per- 
sonal ambition less excited by hopes of family ag- 
grandizement. His successor in command was ac- 
tually of the tribe of Judah. 

How wise, how holy, was the choice of this faith- 
ful servant in the house of God ! May we not well 
repeat, that faith was made for truth, that it is in- 
tended for the truth and not for falsehood and thus 
to promote goodness? Was there ever a truer esti- 
mate made than this one between the reproach of 
Christ and the treasures of Egypt ? The reproach 
of Christ and the recompense of reward are not to 
be separated. If we suffer with him, we shall also 
reign with him. If we deny him, he will also de- 
ny us. So, faith operates on the judgment and 
upon the will and upon the affections. 

Are we believers ? Have we faith ? What has 
it done for us? What are its fruits? Are they 
within us, — in our minds and in our hearts? A 
name or a relation is easily changed when nothing 
is to be lost or gained by it. Moses when called 
the son of Phai'oah's daughter, must have been 



T HE FAITH OF MOSES. 301 

called an Egyptian by nation and by religion. He 
did not worship or suffer with the people of God. 
When he changed his national character and pre- 
ferred his relation in blood to his relation by adop- 
tion, and became truly and publicly religious, he 
united with the people of God to share their lot of 
suffering. Then it was that he changed honor for 
affliction, then it was fru t his faith was tried and 
found unto praise and honor and glory ! 

Between sentiment or feeling and intellect, faith 
may be modified so as to hold a medium or be 
made to approach nearer to (he one or to the other. 
Hence the faith of some men can scarcely be dis- 
tinguished from sense, and that of others passes for 
opinion. The means also that are used to produce 
or to sustain faith, are marked with the same pecu- 
liarities. The feelings excite the mind to believe; 
they are quickened to bring it into the act and 
habit of thinking what to believe and how to be- 
lieve. Two schools of teachers and learners have 
been thus formed and have become rivals. And 
in the ardor of party excitement neither seems dis- 
posed to investigate the grounds of their differences, 
or to admit as facts the tendencies of each other to 
opposite extremes. We have assumed that the 
faith of Moses by partaking largely of the historical 
character, was in a high degree intellectual. This 
we are disposed to think would follow, even if, as 
is commonly supposed, he was inspired to write the 
accounts of even's which happened before he was 
26 



302 DISCOURSE THIRTEENTH. 

born, for he must of course have been inspired io 
know them. But if they were written and trans- 
mitted in the families of his ancestors and he read 
and transcribed them as authentic records, still he 
knew and believed them. But until he renounced 
his Egyptian relation his mind could not have been 
fully under their influence. He must have read 
and thought much by himself. The religious in- 
structions of the professed teachers of the true reli- 
gion could not safely have been attended by him in 
public. That his intercourse with the tribes was 
not very intimate, is probable from his over esti- 
mate of their knowledge. He supposed his breth- 
ren would have understood how that God by his 
hand would deliver them, but they understood not. 
They were not generally readers and calculators of 
the meaning and the dates of prophecies. Exam- 
ples of this intellectual faith as we call it, are met 
with in different ages and countries, and they cor- 
respond in many points with (he faith of Moses. 
These self-instructed and self-reformed men first 
appear in the church with all the stamina of virtue, 
or as having subdued the propensities peculiar to 
their condition and station. Such men confer not 
with flesh and blood. St. Paul began immediately 
to preach Jesus — before all the Apostles knew him. 
Such men perhaps are generally more apt to ob- 
tain self-conquests by their own intellectual efforts, 
than by social schooling. 

We mean not to be partisans of intellectual faith, 



THE FAITH OF MOSES. 303 

nor to censure Indiscriminately feeling faith. Both 
sides may err in their own peculiar way. It is pro- 
bable, that the larger number of every community 
of believers feel more than they think, and that it 
is not easy to increase their faith without exciting 
their feelings. The superiority we claim for the 
thinking faculties is exhibited in the small number 
of the eminently intellectual In comparison with 
those in whom the feelings predominate. Much 
art is necessary to bring the mind into full action. 
But some who think least feel most. It may be 
thought inadmissible to say that faith is apt to con- 
form to sense, as it might seem to question its inspi- 
ration or gracious origin, for most persons of strong- 
religious feelings are apt to be jealous on this point. 
Let the statement be kept in mind, that in all cases 
the real and final effect is produced by the truth or 
that truth is the efficient cause. An error in feeling 
or in opinion will remain so in despite of all our 
belief to the contrary. Faith has no power to make 
error true, nor wrong right. Another objection will 
foe urged against our view of intellectual faith or 
faith conforming to thought rather than feeling, 
namely, — that it leads to self-salvation. But by 
the terms, self-learned or self-taught, we mean that 
certain men use the agency of their own minds in- 
stead of being influenced as some others are by the 
agency of other minds. The Eunuch was reading 
the prophecy of Isaiah. Philip asked him whether 
he understood what he read. He confessed his ig- 



304 DISCOURSE THIRTEENTH, 

norance. Would it be correct to infer that all 
readers of the bible must be equally ignorant of all 
parts of it? If the Eunuch had understood the 
passage he might have believed it and the effects 
of its truth would have been the same, for Philip 
added nothing to the truth, — he only aided the un- 
derstanding. The Eunuch's mind operated instru- 
mentally ; the truth was from God. It is no part 
of the preacher's work to make bibles, or to prevent 
men from understanding the word of God if they 
can. 

Moses had to use great pains and to address him- 
self almost constantly to the feelings of the people, 
to excite and keep up their confidence. Now no 
one can suppose, that the same means were used to 
excite his feelings. But why did he not need them 
as much as the people ? One reason was, his faith 
was more intellectual or came more by hearing 
than by feeling. But no man saves himself by 
hearing and thinking ; his faith may be the more 
rational but it neither creates nor invents any sav- 
ing truth. When we say that the faiih of Moses 
was historical or scriptural, that it was eminent!} 7 
mental, we do not mean that it was in no degree 
sensible or that he did not feel the truths which he 
believed ; but merely that their presence in his 
mind and influence over his judgment, will and 
actions were not mainly regulated by his feelings. 
He could think to a certain extent in one manner, 
white he might have Mi in another and could con- 



THE FAITH OF HOSfiS. 305 

Troi his feelings by his thoughts, Our feelings or 
theii absence are not to be regarded as indifferent 
t® our faith. The most we can do is to habituate 
them to yield in some degree to thought and to our 
confidence in truth. In revivals of religion much 
feeling is usually excited. People believe as they 
feel and because they feel. Hopes are expanded 
and prospects brightened and enlarged. B at in the 
midst of mighty emotions, not unfrequently all the 
feelings subside, the heart becomes dead and the 
mind dark. The wonder then is at this adverse 
change, but no one is prepared to hear of any cause 
short of a supernatural one, or to reflect that religi- 
ous feelings as well as all other human feelings 
have finite limits, and that faith being also finite 
must conform to them in so far as they have had 
any causation in its production. Unhappily it has 
come to pass, that intellectual and sensible faith 
have too often been made to act as antagonist to 
each other, instead of being made as they should 
be help meet to each other. Though it be true, 
that when our confidence or distrust accords with 
our feelings we are immediately and strongly in- 
terested, yet the circle in which the feelings move is 
too limited for the thoughts and so must check the 
sublime movements of the mind. Present enjoy- 
ment becomes a centre of attraction. B ut historical 
faith as we call it, diverts our attention away from 
ourselves and the mind expands and ranges beyond 
earthly limits; and when it returns to the feel- 
26* 



306 DISCOURSE THIRTEENTH, 

ings, like the voyager who comes back enriched 
with new treasures, it improves the feelings them- 
selves. How can any person of experience and ob- 
servation help perceiving, that religious faith when 
almost exclusively associated with the feelings con- 
forms to the operations of wordly or common faith ? 
It is thus, that Christians manifest a proneness to be- 
come believers of a day, and so obliterate the line of 
distinction between faith and sight. The acts of 
believing in hope against hope cannot be kept up 
in habits of impatience. u Ye have heard of the 
patience of Job ; ye have seen the end of the Lord." 
If then above all things we must let patience have 
its perfect work, certainly it is necessary to contem- 
plate the promises of the gospel upon the most en- 
larged scale. The transitions of believers' feelings 
as disclosed in their diaries and conversations, are 
singularly curious when contrasted with the great 
object of their faith, — Jesus Christ yesterday, to- 
day, and forever the same. How weak must those 
eyes be, which are daily and hourly obscured in a 
clear and steady light ! 

It is worth while to notice the different effects of 
faith, under the different circumstances of Joseph 
and Moses. The former as the Grand Yizier of 
Egypt could enjoy its honors and its treasures ; the 
latter as the Deliverer of the tribes of Israel must 
renounce them both. Joseph in the order of Pro- 
vidence was sent into Egypt to save much people 
alive. And Moses was called to deliver ranch peo- 



THE FAITH OP MOSES. SOT 

pie from bondage. Each in his turn contributes to 
promote the great train of events which lead to ths 
redemption of the world. Both live and die in a 
full belief of that glorious promise made to their 
great ancestor, the Father of the Faithful. And 
Moses takes care that the oath shall be fulfilled re- 
specting the bones of Joseph. What a precious 
pledge ! This is one of those who died in the 
faith, not having received the promises but having 
seen them afar off and was persuaded of them. 
The faith of Joseph too enabled him to renounce the 
pleasures of sin for a season of temptation, rather than 
sin against his God. The faith of Moses is an ex- 
ample of the mode of believing now so much need- 
ed by all the churches, and yet if possible more 
than ever neglected to be taught in the schools. It 
seems as if it were generally taken for granted, that 
in regard to historical faith it is now no longer need- 
ed. But is it not in truth the one thing needful to 
our passions and appetites? Instead of having them 
almost constantly presented to our minds by our 
teachers for correction, do we not need to have our 
minds directed quite beyond them and above them ? 
" By two immutable things," says the Apostle, " in 
which it was impossible for God to lie." How sea- 
sonable this relief to the ever mutable feelings! The 
him of every believer should be, that his faith as far as 
possible should take on the eternal character of truth ! 
Cincinnati, February, 1838, 



DISCOURSE FOURTEENTH. 

THE HOPE SET BEFORE US. 



That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for 
God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for 
refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us : which hope we have 
asafi anchor of the soul, both sure and stcdfast, and which entereth 
into that within the veil ; whither the forerunner is for us 
entered, even Jesus, made an high priest forever after the order of 
Melchisedec. 

Hebrews vi.— 18, 19, 20. 

iL God," says the context, lC willing more abun- 
dantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immu- 
tability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath." — 
The form of this oath was ; — " surely blessing I 
will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply 
thee." Abraham, Isaac and Jacob did not become 
fathers until late in life. The former after he had 
patiently endured, obtained the promise in the son 
of Sarah against hope. " We desire," says the 
Apostle, "that every one of you do show the same 
diligence, (relatively) to the full assurance of hope 
unto the end, that ye be not slothful, but followers 
of them who through faith and patience inherit the 
promises." 

Hope and despair stand opposed to each other, as 
faith and unbelief do. They cannot be made to 
operate subslitutively or to produce the same effects. 



THE HOPE SET BEFORE US. 309 

They are in religion and morals, what, attraction 
and repulsion are in nature. Hope stimulates, pro- 
duces strength, vivacity, courage and pleasure. 
Despair relaxes, enfeebles, discourages and distresses. 
The foundation of both is evidently laid in the hu- 
man constitution, for both hope and despair and 
their characteristic effects may be produced by na- 
tural causes as well as by religious and moral ones. 
Certain classes of diseases depress hope, and others 
at certain stages of their action increase or revive it. 
The effects of hectic fevers are well known. Though 
none recover from the insidious malady, yet all who 
suffer under it hope to the very last. From facts 
of this description purely natural, we must infer 
that hope and despair are not mere factitious or ar- 
tificial creations, and that they would exist were 
there no religion in the world. Hope is to be class- 
ed with faith and despair with unbelief. Every 
thing in which we can feel an interest and cati 
think upon, will be in some form associated with 
our hopes or fears, and fears in excess will termi- 
nate in despair. Temporal causes may generate a 
sufficient amount of despair to destroy life. Reli- 
gious despair (so called) cannot become universal 
or perpetual. An extraordinary instance of preju- 
dice is witnessed in those, who gravely and earnest- 
ly hold up certain denominations of Christians as 
the victims of despair, and caution all against em- 
bracing these religions. A religion without hope, 
were it possible for it to exist, must contain the seeds 



310 DISCOURSE FOURTEENTH. 

of its own dissolution. But all religion must begin 
in hope. The only alternative that can be, is be- 
tween true and false hope. False hope may end 
in despair ; but nothing can be begun in despair. 
As soon as a case is perceived or believed to be hope- 
less, it is abandoned. Despair makes no proselytes. 
When preachers are accused of preaching despair 
or driving people to despair by their preaching, it 
is not to be supposed that they fell their hearers that 
they will be lost by believing and following their 
doctrines and instructions. Preachers may tell their 
hearers that they will be lost without religion or 
that a false religion cannot save them ; and if their 
hearers believe them they will of course despair of 
being so saved. But the preacher has gained no- 
thing and can gain nothing by thus producing des- 
pair, unless he can inspire hope of salvation in some 
religion. 

Religion without faith and hope never has exist- 
ed and never can exist, except it be just long enough 
to pass away. False faith and false hope are the 
basis of false religion. But hope is peculiarly ne- 
cessary to religion, because all that is future pertain- 
ing to religion is entirely beyond the apprehension 
without hope. All religions it has been said have 
their mysteries ; for if a religion has nothing in it 
to transcend the senses, something must be invented 
and added to it to carry it beyond the senses or it 
can have no hope. Idolatry which is present to the 
senses, is found to be too much so. It needs mys- 



THE HOPE SET BEFORE VS. 311 

teries and they were produced in excess; and hopes 
and fears beyond all reasonable bounds were thus 
associated in the mind with the presence of lifeless 
imagery. The state is united with the church to 
cooperate in the production of hopes and fears. All 
political and religious movements and measures were 
under the directions of oracles or omens, and these 
all required the agency of the ministers of religion. 
The gospel brings life and immortality to light to 
excite the hopes ; therefore a Christian's hope is said 
to be full of immortality. But though the church 
of Christ had no legal or official connection with 
any government, yet the rise and fall of nations and 
kingdoms and empires, under which the members 
of the church must necessarily live, could not be 
contemplated with indifference by them. Besides, 
the time which must often elapse in great national 
movements and the uncertainty which hangs over 
political events, create in the mind the highest anxie- 
ty. Indeed the opinion of the ancients, that civil 
governments cannot be sustained without religion, 
still prevails both among statesmen and churchmen. 
But is there not some ambiguity about this subject 
and might it not be almost wholly avoided, 
if hope were constantly used in a definite sense? 
The heaven and the hell (so to speak) of the an- 
cient idolaters were in effect political. They need- 
ed them to imply the want of efficacy in their vis- 
ible divinities to generate hope in their worshippers. 
Tlieii religion as has been said was- too sensible; it 



312 DISCOURSE FOURTEENTH. 

left its devotees hopeless. The idols that men saw, 
■ — why did they hope for ? After they had wearied 
their eyes in gazing upon this dumb show in igno- 
rance of another world, what remained but (o make 
a mystery of the government of this world? But 
revealed religion which has brought life and im- 
mortality to light, which has disclosed moral and 
spiritual rewards and punishments can do without 
politics. It has hopes of its own, hopes both sure 
and stedfast, which as an anchor to the soul enter 
into that within the veil, whither the forerunner for 
us is entered, even Jesus. 

Now whether the kingdoms of this World can sus- 
tain themselves without the aid of religious hopes or 
not, it is not for us to say ; but that the whole struc- 
ture of the chrislian^religion is more intimately and 
inseparably connected with hope than any other 
system of religion, is evident from the slightest com- 
parison and particularly from the manner in which 
hope is interwoven with every part of its texture 
and combines with truth and mind. Religious 
knowledge and experience progress under the most 
favorable circumstances but slowly. Of'en when 
we think we have made considerable advances, fu- 
ture tests correct our opinion and humble us, by 
compelling us to make a very modest estimate of 
ourselves and of our attainments — thus leaving am- 
ple space for hope or a patient wailing for that which 
we see not. St. Paul we have seen desired his breth- 
ren to show the same diligence to the full assurance 



THE HOPE SET BEFORE US. 313 

of hope unto the end. But at this very end, we have 
more to hope for than at any former period, for our 
prospects of heaven are more than ever brightened. 
We may havestrong consolation, who have fled for 
refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us. The 
ancient poetical image of hope was an anchor; but 
the image in one respect defeated its own object. 
It was too visible, too palpable. The Apostle plays 
upon the trope. " Which hope " he says " we have 
as an anchor to the soul, both sure and stedfast, 
which entereth into that, within the veil." This 
anchor therefore is not seen. Jesus Christ our hope, 
the object of our hope and the author of it, has pass- 
ed beyond the veil ; his risen body is in heaven 
invisible to us. It has often been noticed how 
Paul's Greek and Hebrew learning em bled him to 
improve his style, by combining words found in 
both languages. Anchor was a Greek word ; veil 
(of the temple) was a Hebrew expression. The 
sure and stedfast of the former combines well with 
the hiding or concealment of the latter. Though 
the great objects of our faith are beyond the veil, 
they are no less sure and certain. The manner in 
which the art of man's device has modified the gos- 
pel, with a view to make it at once more compre- 
hensible and mysterious, is remarkable. The chur- 
ches must be filled with statuary or paintings to aid 
the mind, to assist the understanding. The learner 
and the worshipper must see as well as hear and 
think, and this visible and ceremonious religion must 
27 



814 DISCOURSE F tJ R T E K N T H . 

have mysteries which baffle and confound all reason 
and all sense. The causes of these paradoxes must 
perhaps still be referred to hope. This christian 
imagery and show cannot satisfy the hopes of the 
soul, and offers nothing in fact to it. If we hope 
for that which we see not then do we with patience 
wait for it; but the material objects of worship are 
all seen and what a man seeth,— why doth he hope 
for ? In true religion there is a veil, not a show, 
through which and beyond which thesenses cannot 
penetrate. There is no use, no necessity, for ad- 
ventitious mystery to create hope or to furnish it 
with objects. " Now we see through a glass darkly ; 

and now abideth ■ hope." When Jesus 

went away then hope came; and then the Com- 
forter came. Then the disciples fled for refuge to 
lay hold on the hope set before them, and the Com- 
forter gave them great consolation. Their hope 
followed their forerunner into heaven. 

In the progress of redemption there was no break 
in the chain of events, no confounding of their order. 
The birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension into 
heaven follow in order; but the senses can go no fur- 
ther ; a cloud receives him out of their sight. From 
that time ihey knew him no more after the ilesh. 
The Apostles are not witness of things beyond the 
veil. If St. Paul hears any thing there, they are 
unspeakable words which it is not lawful for man 
to utter. All future time as well as eternity is a 
veil to our senses. We know not what a day may 



THE HOPE SET BEFORE US. 316 

bring forth. To-morrow is an object of hope ; but 
the hope of it is not sure and stedfaet. No future 
day of life is confirmed to any mortal by an oath of 
God. The promise of eternal life ia made sure to 
the heirs of promise. It is impossible -for God to 
lie. 

Jesus my all, to heaven is gone, 
He, whom I fix my hopes upon. 

He ever liveth at the right hand of God to make 
intercession for us. He is a Priest forever after the 
order of Melchisedec. 

The idea of a believing Jew flying for refuge to 
lay hold upon the hope set before him, while the 
dissolution of his ancient church and state was ap- 
proaching, is touching. What other hope could 
those people have had, whose belief in the Messiah 
involved in it his prophecy of the entire overthrow 
of the ancient system, and also the city and temple 
so entirely as not to leave one stone upon another? 
Their ascended Saviour was (he only hope set be- 
fore them, and set before them just at this conjunc- 
ture of time, the end of their political and ecclesias- 
tical world. It was not a revolution but a total de- 
struction. The sun of power was to be darkened, 
the moon was to cease to reflect her borrowed light, 
and the stars (ministers of religion) to fall from 
their orbits. Not a vestige of the primary or the 
secondary power of the hierarchy was to be left in 
Jerusalem. It was also foretold, that the destruc- 
tion of human life would be very great, that not one 



316 DISCOUESE FOURTEENTH. 

ray of earthly hope would remain, when the foe in 
the highest state of exasperation and panting for re- 
venge should be completely victorious. In such 
an anticipated catastrophe how desirable to have a 
hope both sure andstedfasti 

But every man has for himself personally and in 
effect an end of the world. Death to us ends all 
earthly relations. " I die;" — said Joseph. What a 
word ! I die; — must all say, whether they shall 
say it with or without hope. To die without 
hope ; — who can bear the thought ? Few can bear 
it. Either the thought must be banished, or false 
and dreamy hopes must by some means be called 
up. Loss of life and loss of happiness are both 
shocking; — some derangement in our natural feel- 
ings must happen before we can become reconciled 
to the idea of either. The death of the body may 
be submitted to and even desired, while it is regard- 
ed as the separation of the mortal from the immor- 
tal part of ourselves for a time. But annihilation, 
a total and eternal cessation of consciousness is con- 
trary to the first law of nature. To believe it and 
to be reconciled to it, is to cherish the principle of 
suicide. The elements of hope are abundantly 
diffused in our nature, and the pleasure we derive 
from it guarantees their cultivation. The pure en- 
joyments are so desirab)e that every good man 
would wish to live forever for their sake. To have 
a foretaste of heaven and to be willing to cease to 
be or to lose heaven without ceasing to be, is im- 



THE HOPE SET BEFORE US. 317 

possible while reason remains pure. No rational 
man ever yet hated his own soul, and still less its 
own happiness. Our love is for life, and for happy 
life ; and what we love to have we hope to have. 
Both love and hope are as immortal as conscious- 
ness. Neither of them has a self-prompting agency 
to remind us how soon they must expire. Were 
one to be heard calculating how long he would 
love or hope, would not the soundness of his heart 
or head be questioned ? This longing after immor- 
tality proves the relation of hope to the immortal 
soul. 

Oh ! short-lived mortal, a storm is gathering, a 
flood is accumulating. The destroyer is approach- 
ing. Have you not fled? Oh ! fly then, fly now 
to the hope set before you. Fly not only with a 
hope of escape, but fly to the hope, — to Jesus our 
hope. All who would find refuge must fly to him. 
He is the anchor of the soul both sure and sted- 
fast ; he has entered into that within the veil. It is 
this fact which distinguishes Christianity from all 
other systems of religion. The Christian's hope 
maybe as it were all reduced to Jesus. 

My hope is all centered in thee, 

I trust to recover thy love ; 
On earth thy salvation to see, 
And then to enjoy thee above ! 

Jesus is able to save to the uttermost all that 
come unto God through him. When the conse- 

27* 



818 discourse Fourteenth.. 

quences and the guilt of our sins pursue us, when 
the judgments of God threaten us, the Mediator is 
set before us that we may fly to him for succor. 
There is a period in which presumption and false 
hopes will fail. The sinner must finally yield to 
despair. His sins will find him out. The terrors 
of God will make him afraid. Which way will he 
fly? How can he escape? He has become the 
enemy of the Just God, the ministers of whose jus- 
tice are every where. A guilty conscience con- 
founds the sinner's wisdom and destroys his strength 
whether he flies or fights. The history of the man- 
ner in which the wicked have been often overtaken 
by the judgments of God shows, that though Ju- 
lian might not have said (as some say he did) when 
lie fell ; — Oh Galilean, thou hast conquered ! — } T et 
in fact the Galilean does conquer. 

Happy the souls who have fled for refuge from 
impending storms, from raging floods, from devour- 
ing flames, from the righteous judgments of God ! 

Kick me, oh my Saviour, hide 5 
Oh, receive my soul at last ! 

Many poor, deluded, terrified sinners do flee this 
way and that way and every way, except to the 
hope set before them ; and from him they fly to the 
rocks and mountains to invoke them to fall and 
hide them from the face of the Lamb, " for the great 
day of wrath is come," that Lamb who is the Chris- 
tian's hope and who thus becomes the sinner's des- 



T IT E HOPE SET BEFORE U3, 319 

pair. Unhappy ! — which way he flies, is hell ! It 
is but for a time, for a day of visitation, that Jesus is 
set before us as our hope. To -clay his voice must 
be heard, while it is called to-day. To-morrow it 
may be do longer a voice of invitation. Now all 
the ends of the earth may look and be saved ! But 
behold ! he cometh with clouds and who shall be 
able to stand ? When he appeareth on his great 
white throne, earth and heaven shall flee away from 
before his face, and there shall be no place (of re- 
fuge) found for them. 

Error it has been shown may generate false hope ; 
hence the influence of opinion or persuasion over 
it, — as it is always a pleasurable excitement. The 
difficulty in certain cases of distinguishing the plea- 
sures of false hopes from those of true hopes, gives 
an uncertainty to the data of experience and mis- 
leads the judgment. But if error always produced 
despair instead of false hopes, the pleasurable feel- 
ings of true hope would in many cases of experi- 
ence be a good and safe guide to the mind. No 
man's judgment is questioned when he affirms of 
one feeling, this is hope, and of another despair. 
But the case is altered when he pronounces judg- 
ment upon two feelings of hope in his own heart ; 
for suspicions will arise in other minds (hat he may 
misjudge between true and false hope. This pro- 
cess differs from that of judging the causes of our 
hopes in the abstract without regarding the hopes 
themselves, or of compelling our minds to judge of 



320 DISCOURSE FOURTEENTH, 

the effects by the causes ; for in this case it would 
follow that whatever might be the nature and de- 
gree of feeling, if the cause is wrong the hope must 
be so too. But experience may detect errors (when 
it can detect them) too late to apply the remedy. 
Though facts may prove the fallacy of our feelings, 
we may not be able to control them nor to escape 
from their consequences. The habit of false hopes 
may become very inveterate. There is for instance 
a popular morality or religion ; and it may have 
gained its popularity and the sanction of great 
names on account of the facility with which it ge- 
nerates hope. It may draw largely on the mer- 
cy of God and the merits of the Saviour, and that 
too at the most reasonable and I he most seasonable 
time ; — at the very time when they are most need- 
ed, that is, when one has done all one can do to 
save one's self. Now if he has failed, he hopes that 
God in mercy for Chiisi's sake will do the rest. Is 
not this reasonable and a reasonable construction of 
Scripture ? So argues reason. To such conclu- 
sions does reason come and thus does it sustain 
them. But reason may err in its premises while it 
makes (rue inferences from them. If these bean 
error in these premises, all the hope that grows out 
of the conclusions must be false. 

While we have the Scripture and our reason, 
what course shall we pursue to detect error and 
confirm truth ? We begin by assuming that some- 
thing more is surely flue to the Scriptures than to 



THE HOPE SET BEFORE US. 321 

our reason. The bible is an old book, our indivi- 
dual minds can never be very old without beingin- 
firra, and most of them are still young". Our opin- 
ions ought therefore to be the first to be suspected, 
and of course to be the first to be examined. Our 
reason and the pleasing hopes we may have built 
upon it are parts of ourselves ; they may be selfish 
in a greater or less degree. Have we a heaven and 
a way to get there in our own minds, and do we 
hope to go to heaven in this way ? Now though 
our thoughts may come from Scripture, is it certain 
that they do so? Our reason will not be apt to be- 
gin with itself precisely as the Scriptures do with it. 
That old book does not by any means flatter the 
mental and moral faculties of us men. It charges 
us with a proneness to think of ourselves more 
highly than we ought to think. And this error may 
affect the whole process of our reasoning. If the 
ground be assumed too high, all the conclusions 
will logically err by excess. The difficulty of get- 
ting to heaven, in proportion as we conceive it in 
our mind.* to be greater or less, must affect ail our 
views of the way to heaven or (as it is called) the 
plan of salvation. " Strive to enter in at the straight 
gate, for straight is the gate and narrow is the way 
that leadeth to heaven, and few there be that find it ; 
and wide is the gate and broad is the way that lead- 
eth to destruction, and many there be that go in 
thereat." The straightness and narrowness of the 
way comes under the consideration of our reason, 



322 DISCOURSE FOURTEENTH. 

and as we judge of it we shall feel the need of help 
proportionally. Men who suppose they have am- 
ple time at their command to do a work which can 
soon be done, conclude they need be in no hurry 
about it and indulge in no despondency. The de- 
pravity and ignorance of nature, the deceitfulness 
of sin, and the force of vicious habit do not enter 
into their reasoning, do not in their judgment help 
to make the gate straight or the way narrow. They 
are happy because they hope to get to heaven, and 
they hope to get to heaven because they err in un- 
dervaluing the difficulties and overvaluing their 
time and means and ability. They reason from 
false premises. The mercy of God and the me- 
rits of a Mediator are not mere appendages of salva- 
tion, but are at the foundation, the very beginning 
of tiie whole matter. " Without me ye can do no- 
thing," — not, — do all you can and I will do the rest. 
But is it not reasonable we should try to do all we 
can ? And may not every man reasonably expect, 
that if he does God will help him ? Where can 
be the error of such a course? Observe, — if the 
heart be wicked and deceitful the fact should be 
known. If we are altogether ignorant of ourselves 
pride and self righteousness may be concealed un- 
der our sincerity ; and our hopes of salvation would 
be in effect salvation in our sins and not salvation 
from our sins. Sincerity and hope when based 
upon error alter nothing and do not directly add to 
farther knowled ge. Peter could perceive that Si- 



THE EO?E SET BEF O EE US. 323 

mon was in the gall of bitterness and in die bond of 
iniquity, though he was negotiating in hopes of pur- 
chasing the Hoiy Ghost with mdmef. The guilty 
end unsanctified character of human nature is a fact, 
on which the redemption of man is predicated. The 
Son of man came to seek and to save that which 
was lost. If we should reason away \\m fact, we 
should involve the consequences also in the same 
•conclusions. Jesus comes .not to call the righteous 
but sinners to repentance. Now the illusive hope 
we are combatting makes Jesus in effect call the 
i igh teo us r atlier "than si nroers t o rep en ta n c e. These 
¥>eed no repentance, but if they should need -msy 
help it is only to make up some defects in their 
righteousness and in this way they would hope to 
fee saved. But should it prove in the sequel, that 
lliey are ignorant of God's righteousness and .are 
going about to establish their own righteousness, 
how disastrous must the error be! Christian hopes 
should indeed be ratiowai, and they sine so when 
they are truly Scriptural. The hope of the hypo- 
crite shall perish. This it is rational to suppose 
must needs be, unless hope were -strong erx>ugfa to 
withstand this sin, Hope, though among the active 
of the pleasurable excitements, is the feeblest of 
auxiliaries to hypocrisy. When the crisis arrives, 
knowledge gives a death blow to hope and the hy- 
pocrite is in despair. 

In the order of experience the most common pro- 
cess is, that such a conscious pb:1 rational conviction 



324 DISCOURSE FOURTEENTH. 

of (he clement of sin and of ihe evil propensities of 
the heart takes place, as to destroy hope or to pro- 
duce despair of obtaining" pardon for sin through 
any human merit or of changing the heart by human 
means. Teaching and instruction (hen show the 
plan of salvation by grace through faith. Jesus 
Christ becomes the object of faith and is believed 
in in the heart unto righteousness; and the spirit of 
grace begins the work of comfort and sanctirication 
by shedding the love of God abroad in the heart. 
Now the pardoned sinner stands in this grace as one 
who has received the atonement not made it, and 
rejoices in the hope of I he glory of God. After this 
great change hope follows, and the movements and 
degrees of faith and consolations become strong and 
full of immortality. It is in this justifying and 
sanctifying change that experience answers to the 
■language of the text, — " have fled for refuge k> lay 
hold upon the hope set before us." This change 
is not limited to any definite time ; but in the short- 
est time the transition of the feelings is generally 
clear and distinct in proportion to the degree in 
which the plan of salvation is understood. If the 
faith in the merits and grace of the Saviour is strong 
and steady, hope cannot be weak and wavering. 

Tears of joy mine eyes overflow, 

I have a hope of heaven ; 
Much of love I ought to know, 

For I have much forgiven. 

The change is indeed often wonderful and can 



THE HOPE SET BEFORE US. %2B 

never be wholly forgotten. Unbounded and infi- 
nite fulness of merit and grace appears in. the Sa- 
viour. 



Like our espousals, Lard-, to tkee, 
Like the blest hour when from above. 
We first received the pledge of love. 

It may be laid down as a general rule, that those 
who have never been conscious to a degree amount* 
ing in effect to despair of their inability to save them- 
selves , have little trustworthy hope in the Lord Je- 
sus Christ. It is in the exercise of repentance that 
the discoveries begin to be made of our fallen and 
lost estate, of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and 
the enmity of the carnal mind to the law of God ; 
but until the heart is quite broken into contrition, 
humbled and prostrated at the feet of mercy, it will 
disclose its proneness to catch at the shadow of hope. 
This is the weak side of human nature in regard to 
religion. How few have courage enough to expose 
the fallacy of their false hopes ! The idea of lay- 
ing hold upon the hope set before us is not steady ; 
the mind wanders and creates its OAvn hopes and is 
ever ready to follow incidents. One of the peculiar 
evidences of true gospel hope is, that it is provided, 
prepared, set before us, not adventitious or inci- 
dent ah 

What did thine only Son endure, 

Before I drew my breath ; 
What pain, what labor to secure 

My soul from endless death ! 

28 



326 DISCOURSE FOURTEENTH. 

" Before whose eyes, Jesus Christ has been evident- 
ly set forth, as crucified among you." 

The points of identity in the gospel plan of hope 
have been strangely neglected or overlooked or suf- 
fered to be perverted by the enemy. A religion 
without a priesthood was unknown to the ancients. 
The Gospel did not attempt to shock the opinions 
of mankind by introducing a new religion without 
a priesthood, nor with a priesthood never before 
heard of or typified ; but it established a priesthood 
after the order of Melchisedec differing from the 
order of Aaron in having no succession. Melchis- 
edec stands on record genealogyless. He is histor- 
ically immortal. So Jesus Christ abideth a priest 
forever. The resurrection of any one of the sons 
of Aaron was rendered incredible and impossible, 
for it would have deranged the whole plan of that 
succession. But as it was expressly foretold that 
the Priesthood of the Messiah should be perpetual 
in his own person, and as his enemies actually cru- 
cified him, his resurrection became necessary to the 
fulfilment of the prophecy ; and this fact gives rise 
to an identity of Priesthood which cannot be imita- 
ted or counterfeited. Let all the priests who have 
ever existed be brought into review, and to which 
order can the language, — v whither the forerunner 
for us is entered," — have any application in truth 
or in fact ? Here indeed there are, there can be no 
rival claims, no competitors. The point to be prov- 
is not, which of the risen and ascended priests or 



THE H Q P E SET BEFORE US. 32? 

high priests is our hope, for no other priesthood ever 
pretended to any thing of the kind. We see how 
Jesus is made a Priest forever after the order of 
Melchisedec, how lie becomes the anti-type while 
the other is only the type. No prieFthood on earth 
stands in the way of this great high-priesthood, and 
it stands in the way of no one. It has entered into 
that within the veil and entered as our forerunner. 
The high-priest entered under the law within the 
veil of the temple. But it was sacrilege for any 
other person to follow. Jesus our forerunner says, 
— " where I am, there shall ye my servants be also, 
that ye may behold my glory." His presence 
makes our paradise, and where he is is heaven. — - 
" Because I live, ye shall live also." " Them that 
sleep will Jesus bring with him." " We shall be 
caught up to the Lord \a the air, and so be forever 
with the Lord." The foundation of God standeth 
sure. The foundation of our hope is immutable 
truth. It is impossible for God to lie. His promise 
has all the legal forms and sanctions. Does the law 
require that the promise should be under oath ? On 
this point there can be no litigation ; the instrument 
or covenant is valid in form. If there were no true 
promise there could be no hope, no consolation at 
all. What God hath not promised, we have no 
right to expect. We conceive or imagine a thous- 
and things which appear so desirable that we wish 
ourselves into hoping for them, and we can think 
of no reason why the Author of all good might not 



328 DISCOURSE FOURTEENTH. 

bestow them upon us, especially as we know not 
how we can be happy without them. Hence hu- 
man discontent and murmuring. Men claim as 
their right what they want. But there must be 
promises and heirs of the promises. " In hope of 
eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised 
before the world began." The great promise, the 
parent promise of all others, is the promise of the 
Saviour. And the Apostle has shown that this 
promise was made to Abraham, four hundred and 
fifty years before the law was given on Mount Si- 
nai. The promise is grace or free grace, and the 
law cannot disannul it or make it of none effect. 
The strength of our consolation is drawn from these 
two immutable things, the nature and the veracity 
of God. Self-moved by his love to give his Son, from 
the day he makes the promise that ihe seed of the 
of the woman shall bruise the the serpent's head, 
He is the hope set before the world until his follow- 
ers follow him into that within the veil, when we 
shall see him as he is and be like him. The Chris- 
tian's privilege of joy unspeakable and full of glory 
Is founded upon the good will or pleasure of God ; 
— " Wherein God willing more abundantly to show 
unto the heirs of promise." A less display of evi- 
dence or testimony might have furnished ground to 
hope, but a feeble and unsteady hope is accompani- 
ed only with a small measure of consolation. But 
there is a full assurance of hope which may continue to 
the end of our life and labors. God is not unfaitU- 



T H^ H-JD P 15 --S OS T B H.PO ft E TTS. 3'29 

ful to forget kis promises or our hopes. The ap- 
prehension which certain good people manifest lest 
diey should be too happy in religion, if it implies a 
fear of an excess in degree in their confidence m the 
promises, is little in accordance with the letter or 
spirit of the text. Why did God swear by himself 
because he could swear by no greater ? That those 
who had fled for refuge t@ lay hold upon the hope 
set before them, might have sdrong consolation. 
The human feelings are so .co&stituted that a Chris- 
tian cannot enjoy the highest degree of happiness 
with diminished hopes. Whatever increases our 
tropes of heaven -must also increase ©wr consolation. 
Here we have no continuing <city but seek one. to 
•come. All religion must have a f&turc. 

The very essence of k-r-eligioM is m the idea,— let 
%is eat and drink, for to-morrow we die. Reason as- 
pires to immortality. Only the lowest grade of sense 
is satisfied with the present. Bvit k is the religion 
of life and immortality, the hope set^before us, wh.'ch 
*enobles reasen. The notion of the transmigration 
of souls was brutalizing and degrading, and con- 
founded sense and reason. Fesus is made in the 
likeness of sinful flesh, he takes the form of a ser- 
vant and becomes obedient unto death., even the 
death of the cross, fer o\m redemption. But for our 
justiicatien, he exalts, he ennobles our nature. His 
resurrection justki.es and warrants our hopes, that 
those who sleep with; kim shall be raised by his 
power. " He shall change our vile body and fash- 
2S* 



3-30 D I B C V E*S E FOURTEENTH. 

ion it like unto his glorious body, according to the 
power whereby lie is able to subdue all things unto 
himself." , These lively hopes we owe, Lord, to thy 
dying love. 

Arrayed in glorious grace, 

Shall these vile bodies shine ; 
And every shape and every face. 

Be heavenly and divine. 

u For the hope of the resurrection of the dead, am 
I called in question by you this clay." We have 
fled for refuge to lay hold upon the risen Saviour. 
" Concerning one Jesus, who they said was dead, 
but Paul affirmed that he was alive." Yes, he is 
alive ; indeed death hath no more dominion over 
him. " If there be no resurrection, then is Christ 
not risen ; and if Christ be not risen, your faith is 
vain and ye are yet in your sins, and they that have 
fallen asleep have perished." " But now is Christ 
risen from the dead and become the first fruits of 
them that slept." 

We hold not the doctrine of unconditional repro- 
bation, because we hold that no good can come of 
absolute despair. No man can believe himself to 
be a hopeless reprobate and enjoy the rational pleas- 
ures of life, not to say religion. The condition is 
too miserable to live in ; it would tend to injure 
health and to destroy life. The despair we hold to, 
is that of going to heaven without making the at- 
tempt or of going to heaven in a wrong wa} T . 

My message as from God receive ; 
Ye all may come to Christ and live 



THE HOPE SET BEFORE US. 331 

Let us make sure work for eternity. False hopes 
are most ruinous. Do we hope to be saved at some 
future time, and therefore put off the present opportu- 
nitys ? Upon what ground can such a hope be in- 
dulged ? Not surely upon any positive evidence 
that we shall live ; not from any analogy drawn 
from observation or the experience of others. Among 
all the hopes with which short-lived mortals flatter 
themselves, none are so unreasonable as that one 
which expresses itself in, — there is time enough yet. 
How strange, while the vapor of life is every mo- 
ment vanishing before us, that we should still trans- 
fer eternal interests to a future time ! Well and sea- 
sonably does the Scripture exhort us, — "the rather 
to give all diligence to make our calling and elec- 
tion sure," — " to work while it is called to-day, lest 
the night should come when no man can work." — 
How solemn, how awful is death ! The moment 
of death, that fearful moment was once a moment 
of hope, a moment when salvation was to have been 
secured. Oh, the folly of procrastination ! And 
yet hope is at the bottom of it. But there is hope 
deferred which maketh the heart sick, the terrible 
dread of dying before the great work is done, before 
the blcod bought pardon is sealed with the Spirit. 
This is a hopeful case ; the remedy is in believing 
in hope against hope. Let the dying sinner who is 
seeking pardon now lay hold upon the hope set be- 
fore him. In this dark, trying moment when all 
human hope nnd holp fc>^ : , when none but Jesus 



332 DISCOURSE FOURTEENTH. 

can do helpless sinners good, to whom else should 
a dying creature fly for refuge ? 

The unsteady and fluctuating hope, the alterna- 
tions of despair so often met with in experience ar- 
gue wrong instruction or wrong feelings. All the 
passions are in their nature unsteady in a high state 
of activity. Stabilit} T in hope like all other human 
stability must come through the mind. tJ I know 
in whom I have believed and am persuaded that he 
is able to keep unto that day, that which I have com- 
mitted umto him !" 

Cincinnati, Febuiaty, IS3& 



DISCOURSE FIFTEENTH. 

st. Paul's desires, 



For this cause we also, since the day Ave heard it, do not cease to 
pray for yon, and to desire that ye might be filled_with the know- 
ledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding 3 that ye 
might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in 
every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God 5 strength- 
ened with all might according to his glorious power, unto all pa- 
tience and long-suffering with joyfulness 5 giving thanks unto the 
Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance 
of the saints in light ; who hath delivered us from the power of dark- 
ness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son : in 
whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness 
of sins. 

Colossians, i. 9 — 14. 

Truths are often presented in the gospel in mass- 
es or clusters and commonly with some regard to 
an arrangement in an ascending or a descending 
scale, or from cause to effect or effect to cause, or 
occasionally the order is changed by an incidental 
expression or remark. The mention of joyfulness 
leads to giving of thanks unto the Father for the 
sum of all blessings, for making " us meet to be par- 
takers of the inheritance of saints in light." The 
subject then runs into details or particulars. To be 
made meet for this inheritance, it is obvious we must 
be delivered from the power of darkness. 

Moral and religious darkness or ignorance and 
error, differ from natural darkness ; (he latter being 



334 DISCOURSE F I F T E E N T H . 

nothing more than the absence of light to which it 
makes no active resistance. Hence the rays of light 
progress in right lines and darkness remains only in 
shadow. When the rays of light are intercepted by 
any body through which they cannot pass, they do 
not bend or make a curve around it ; nor do the 
shadow lines force the rays of light to curve inwards 
upon themselves. We see these effects from the 
examples of a candle in a room and the eclipses of 
the sun and moon. But the light of knowledge or 
wisdom does not (so to speak) progress or propagate 
itself through a mere negative or unresisting medium. 
The darkness of ignorance and error becomes antasr- 
onist to it. Truth is not permitted by this active 
darkness to pass onwards in right lines. There is 
a struggle and a war of principles. When the men- 
tal' and moral darkness prevails, the time and the 
influence are called the hour and power of darkness. 
Happily this power cannot last forever. The cruci- 
fixion of the Redeemer is emphatically called the 
hour and power of darkness. But the sun of righ- 
teousness was not extinguished ; it was only eclipsed. 
There is a state of things in times of inveterate ig- 
norance and error, which seems to answer to preter- 
natural possession. Men act as though they were 
bereft of reason. The enlightened reader looks 
back upon those times with wonder and atonishment 
and can hardly believe it could have been possible, 
that the human mind could have been so bewilder- 
ed and so lost to reason. The whole system of idola- 



st. faul's desires. 335 

try was a power of darkness. The light of the truth 
or the knowledge of the true God was opposed and 
resisted with the most tremendous force. Physical, 
intellectual and moral power were all combined. 
The appetites and passions do evidently gain great 
accession of strength in this union with error. Who- 
ever has seen some of the modern examples of vice 
in local situations, can readily account for similar ef- 
fects on the great scale, when as it is said all flesh 
corrupted its ways. In these hours of the power of 
darkness, whole communities and races of men 
grow quickly and universally corrupt. At an early 
age after the deluge, the cities of the plains rilled up 
the measure of their iniquities. What but the 
power of darkness could pervert nations into drunk- 
ards and gamblers and duellists ? " Giving thanks 
unto the Father who hath delivered us from the 
power of darkness/' — says the Apostle. The dark- 
ness of ignorance and error combines with volition. 
Men have or suppose they have an interest in sus- 
taining this power, and so they come to love dark- 
ness rather than light. To be delivered in this 
case is, to dissolve associations, attachments and 
friendships. Our friends will exert an influence 
and even an authority over us, by operating upon 
our hopes and fears. It is not enough to see or to 
know the truth ; inclination and resolution must be 
transferred to it and become strong and steady 
enough to resist the united will of those who love 
us and whom we love, as thev may not be able to 



336 DISCOURSE FIFTEENTH. 

comprehend how our deliverance can accord with 
our love to them. The power of darkness has of- 
ten been the power of life and death, or the power 
of banishment from society and confiscation of pro- 
perty. The dark power of idolatry was dreadful. 
It often deranged the appetites and passions, and 
arrayed them against the truth. If the mind mis- 
conceived or the judgment was indecisive, or the 
resolution and fortitude failed, the antagonist power 
of darkness was ever ready to press an advantage. 
Without a bible or revealed truth, how una- 
vailing would all the efforts of human genius or 
reason have proved in combating a system of idola- 
try interwoven with the texture of society and gov- 
ernment and indeed incorporated into the language 
of nations ! 

Those who sre disposed to think lightly of the 
bible as a dead letter do not bring the philosophy 
of language to bear upon the subject. Words are 
the signs of ideas. We cannot reason without lan- 
guage. The sounds which animals make are signs 
of emotions, and like our laughing and crying and 
interjections, express feelings not ideas. Hence 
they do not progress, but recur or repeat. Now let 
it be supposed that a book of idolatry were to be 
the common and only medium of religious lan- 
guage between a number of persons, and that one 
or more of them by any means should be led to 
conceive the idea that there is but one God ; how 
could this idea be propagated or how could argu- 



ST. PAUL'S DESIRES. 337 

ments be used in its favor or its truth be defended ? 
The supposition need only to be made to perceive 
the necessity of a bible as a means of our deliver- 
ance. Why the language of darkness is dark. The 
language of ignorance and error cannot be other 
than their like. Take for example a theogony or a 
genealogy of the Gods, and conceive it to be the 
only means the mind has of acquiring any knowl- 
edge of God ; and must it not be admitted that it 
would be likely to remain as ignorant as old He- 
giocl, the author of this book ? The Father hath 
delivered us from the dominion of darkness by giv- 
ing us a book of light, of knowledge, and of truth, 
by giving us grace to help our infirmities and to 
strengthen our hearts and minds in reading, under- 
standing, believing, and obeying this book. 

The power of society is commonly equal to the 
power of sin. Holy persons are not to be looked 
for in unholy company. Can cordial and mutual 
friendship be maintained between a sober man and 
a company of drunkards ? Can he feel willing that 
they should be always drunk, and they feel Avilling 
that he should be always sober ? Can a worship- 
per of the living and true God feel willing that his 
friends should worship idols, and these idolaters 
feel willing that he should worship one God in spi- 
rit and in truth ! Can gamblers and those who re- 
fuse to gamble feel of one heart and soul ? The 
truth is, that now as formerly evil communications 
corrupt good morals and good religion as well as 
29 



3b& 



DISCOURSE FIFTEENTH, 



good manners, and to be delivered we must come 
out and be separate. Two men are friends ; they 
have a union of affections and of wills. The one 
wills that the other should sin with him. The 
other says that he is not willing, that he will not. 
The wills are divided ; the friendship ceases. Now 
comes the crisis. One or the other must yield or 
the affections must be divided, and then they are 
enemies. The spiritual worshippers of one God 
have been sincerely reproached with the unsocial 
nature of their religion. We need not now attempt 
to defend them. But we are sure, that if they had 
been entirely innocent of the charge, idolaters 
would not have been pleased to have seen their 
images neglected and no more notice taken of them 
than of stocks and stones. Wills must go together 
in religion as in other cases, or they must divide. 
Society is a test of wills. Enlightened minds, ra- 
tional convictions of truth, full persuasion of what 
is right if overpowered by social influence or habit, 
show that there is a moral cause of evil which is 
counteracting the understanding. The Father then 
delivers our wills from the power of those wills 
which oppose his own. He dissolves our friend- 
ship with the enemies of his truth. Then he trans- 
lates us into the kingdom of his clear son. We have 
not only a king in God's dear son, but a kingdom 
also, and fellow-subjects. We are associated with a 
new society, and find new friends and new friend- 
chips in those who also have been delivered from 



st, Paul's desires, 339 

the power of darkness. In this kingdom we have 
a new statute book, new laws, laws of knowledge 
and of truth; new rules of life and manners; new 
motives and means and helps in the pursuit and 
practice of truth and goodness. Jesus Christ as we 
say is the head of the church. He is King of saints. 
He governs our minds and our affections and our 
wills. In the Church of Christ there can be no le- 
galized power of error or of evil. In this commu- 
nity every man must speak truth with his neighbor. 
No man is to go beyond, to defraud a brother, for 
God is (he avenger of all such. There is to be no 
intemperance, but temperance in all things. Truth 
and knowledge are to acquire a moral force of gen- 
eral example and of habit. The accordance of the 
wills of these subjects to the will of their King, is 
the basis of all that can be mutual between them. 
The mind that is in Christ being in them, they 
agree with him in all things. 

It is a great change to pass personally from vice 
to virtue; but a change from a vicious society is 
also great, and is consequently in the language of 
the text a translation as well as a deliverance. How 
must those who came out of the ark after the flood 
have been struck with the change ! That earth 
which they had seen filled with violence, was now 
desolated of its inhabitants. But how much greater 
the change could we imagine that wicked race to have 
been translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son ! 
What cause of thankfulness have we, that instead 



340 DISCOURSE FIFTEENTH. 

ofour perishing under the power of darkness, God ill 
mercy by his truth and grace, hath made us wise 
unto salvation and brought us under the dominion 
of his dear Son, into the kingdom of his dear 
Son in whom we have redemption through 
his blood, even the forgiveness of sins? We give 
" thanks unto the Father that we have redemption 
through his blood." This is very literal, very plain. 
By what process of the mind is it, that men who 
profess to believe the New Testament can prevail 
upon themselves to deny all redeeming efficacy in 
the death of Christ? The expressions, — redemp- 
tion through his blood, and the forgiveness of sins, — 
seem to be designedly used or placed in the gram- 
matical relation called apposition. In this order of 
time one is indeed before the other ; and they differ 
in place, the one being on the cross and the other in 
the conscience. The one also is the cause and the 
other the effect 5 but how can the mind think of the 
forgiveness of sins and not of redemption through 
his blood ? The mention of the one implies the 
other. The doctrine may be opposed by argument, 
by ridicule, and it may be contradicted by blasphe- 
mers as it often has been, but it is Scriptural. It is 
a Scripture position laid down, stated, enounced, 
literally and formally. It is likewise logically 
maintained by the legitimate modes of reasoning, 
and applied rhetorically. " Glorify God in your 
bodies and in your spirits, which are God's." "Ye 
are not your own, for ye are bought with a pi ice, 



bt, Paul's desires. 341 

not of silver, or of gold, or of precious stones, but 
with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb with- 
out spot and blemish. We give thanks unto the 
Father for delivering us, for translating us, for our 
redemption and for the forgiveness of our sins. 

Gratitude or thankfulness is a mere emotion or 
instinctive affection. We give thanks not only 
with the spirit, but with the understanding also. 
This is rational piety ; — to have distinct conceptions 
or ideas of the causes and objects or ends of our 
feelings. It is not uncommon to hear persons in 
relating their experience, referring to feelings which 
they had and had lost before they were instructed 
or taught to know what religion is, and which they 
now perceive were the same in kind with their pre- 
sent ones. So it almost constantly happens to per- 
sons of tender consciences ; — they go through the 
exercises of repenting and finding peace in their 
feelings without knowing the theory of repentance 
and conversion, and lose all on account of their ig- 
norance. They know not the causes or the conse- 
quences. All is dark behind and before them. 
They have no faith in what they know not. It is 
so and must be so with all feelings the foundation 
or the causes of which are not laid in nature. Now 
these embryo and incipient feelings are not natural, 
not of the same origin and kind as the appetites and 
passions; they must therefore become weak and 
unsteady without the aid of knowledge and prac- 
tice. Ignorance may foster wickedness but not 

9£)% 



342 d i s c o ti n s fi PiFT'£fiN(r«. 

Sfoodness or religion. The former is the natural 
crab-stock and the latter the graft. The one is the 
ill- weed which grows apace, while the other is the 
cultivated plant which thrives only under the hand 
of art. 

St. Peter speaks of those who had forgotten that 
they were purged from their old sins. Were these 
the persons who did not grow in the knowledge of 
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ? The memo- 
ry suffers greatly in the conflicts of ignorance and 
error. Backsliders who were never well settled in 
the truth, and those who have become unsettled, do 
sometimes fall into a vice which injures the memo- 
ry if not all the mental faculties ; — as for instance, 
sottish intemperance. It requires a well-informed 
mind, or rather a mind well-grounded in the prin- 
ciples of salvation, to sustain habitual emotions of 
piety. To be thankful to God for the privileges of 
Christian fellowship as one of the blood-bought and 
freely justified souls to whom there is now no con- 
demnation ; to know that we have passed from 
dealh unto life ; to know in whom we have believ- 
ed ; — this is not to walk in darkness but to have the 
light of life, not to worship Ave know not what but 
but to worship God in spirit and in truth. There are 
indeed persons of high professional piety who are 
not thankful to the Father for redemption ; the 
blood shed on the cross produces no emotion of gra- 
titude in their hearts, for they hold that it had no 
redeeming merit in i( 3 that it had nothing to do as a 



-ft T . p A tr % -: js desires. 343 

cause with the forgiveness of sins. The rationale 
of our devotion cannot exceed its doctrine. Thus 
what is called the invocation of saints, that is, pray- 
ing to dead men and dead women to pray for us, 
must cease entirely when our faith is limited to one 
Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ 
Jesus. 

" Epaphras," says the Apostle, " our dear fellow 
laborer, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ, 
declared unto us your love in the spirit. For this 
cause since the day we heard it, we do not cease to 
pray for you and to desire, that ye might be filled 
with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual un- 
derstanding." St. Paul knew what Christians 
ought to be, and so he knew what to pray for and 
what to desire for those Colossian converts who had 
faith in Christ and love to all the brethren whom 
the Gospel had bought since that day they knew 
the grace of God in truth. The knowledge of his 
will is the knowledge of his law or the knowledge 
of their duty. To be filled with knowledge and 
wisdom and spiritual understanding, are forms of 
expression which perhaps answer to the modern 
term, — practical knowledge. There is hardly any 
case in which, though we learn rules and copy them 
with great care, if we cannot fully rely upon our 
own judgment Ave are not apt to err. This 
is so common that some persons dissuade us 
from attending to rules and advise us to follow na- 
ture altogether. No advice is less trust-worthv. 



3-14 DISCOURSE FIFTEENTH. 

Paul desires the opposite as every practical man 
must. He would have "the law or the rules of life 
to be incorporated into the mind, so that the mind 
should be fully imbued with them and that wisdom 
and spiritual understanding might apply the law to 
suit the case. The navigator knows all the rules 
of his art. He has young and expert learners in 
the ship who keep correct reckoning ; but let a 
storm continue and increase in violence and they 
will all gladly give place to the commander. He 
is filled with knowledge in all wisdom ; he can ap- 
ply the rules in a storm. It is thus in all the criti- 
cal and difficult situations of life. Common sense 
and experience may almost wholly fail and none 
but thoroughly practical minds can manage the 
helm of affairs. Great trials must come ; they are 
to be looked for in the course of events. And 
when they do come all will see the importance of 
the maxim ; — not a novice. Alas, for the commu- 
nity which are then all novices ! " I now desire 
what you all may live to need ; I desire that ye 
may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all 
kinds of wisdom." Suppose that this Christian or 
minister is studying grammar, logic or rhetoric. 
Where is the use of this ? — some one might say. 
What have these studies to do with love to God 
and men? How will they teach us our duty or the 
knowledge of the will of God ? The answer is ; — ■ 
they are parts of the whole of wisdom. " I thank 
God I speak with tongues more than ye all." 



st. Paul's desires. 3 15 

Where is the use of tongues ? They are signs to 
them that believe not. The gainsay ers must be si- 
lenced. The mouths of those who subvert whole 
houses must be stopped. If one kind of wisdom 
fails, another kind must be employed. All wisdom 
and all spiritual understanding may be required to 
promote the cause of truth. All kinds of wisdom 
strengthen the mind. There is a range or compass 
in which the mental faculties may be exercised, by 
which all their powers may be improved. We see 
this same process in the exercise of the members of 
the body. No person can call forth all the ener- 
gies his body is capable of, if he has used one kind 
of exercise only. The hands, the arms, the legs, 
the feet, give proportional vigor to each other, as 
one might say after the manner of the text, in all 
strength. It is true, that the division of labor (so 
called) is the most effectual method oi despatching 
work, but it is well known that the workmen are 
apt to suffer for the want of variety of exercise. Re- 
ligion prospers most in all wisdom and spiritual un- 
derstanding, or when knowledge is most extensive- 
ly diffused in the church. There is not an art nor 
a science which may not be made to subserve the 
increase of religious knowledge. The fathers of 
the church are inferior to the Apostles, for they 
lived when knowledge began to decline. Those 
who followed the fathers continued still to decline 
with the degeneracy of the ages in which they lived 
and wrote, and all became barbarous. As learning 



346 DISCOURSE FIFTEENTH, 

revived, religious books began to improve. In every 
age and country, pure religion is found to revive 
and prosper in proportion as Christians are filled 
with the knowledge of God in all wisdom. 

The Apostle next desires, that they might 
walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being 
faithful in every good work and increasing in 
the knowledge of God. There is an exter- 
nal demeanor of morals and manners which has an 
effect like what is called the language of signs. 
This kind of deportment or behaviour pleases every 
body. Such a one is said to be a finished or an ac- 
complished gentleman or lady. The educated and 
uneducated, the rich and the poor, the old and the 
young, and the pious and profane are all pleased 
with good manners. A polite slave pleases. In 
ancient times, when princes and princesses and per- 
sons of refined education were enslaved, they were 
purchased by the great and the wealthy to teach 
and instruct their own children or to amuse and 
please themselves. Many of these were made free, 
and were known asfreed-men especially among the 
Romans. But is not this accomplished, polite be- 
haviour, so much admired by every body, conformi- 
ty to the world? Many good people are taught to 
believe so, and to think that true piety is only to be 
expressed by rusticity of manners. Much ignor- 
ance and error have prevailed on this subject. Every 
approach to good manners has been regarded as an 
approach to pride and vanity or flattery, and as the 



s t . paul's desires. 347 

first step in the way to vice. How different the as- 
sociations in the text! " Walk worthy of the Lord 
unto all pleasing." But how then could Chris- 
tians have been persecuted for righteousness' sake? 
Poverty, ignorance, and rudeness of manners are 
commonly classed together, because they are sup- 
posed to be related as cause and effect. Knowledge 
springs from instruction and instruction cannot be 
purchased by the poor; and ignorance however well 
disposed does not know how to please. So perse- 
cutors reason, while they make their victims poor. 
But there are in general, fewer political obstruc- 
tions to the Gospel among the poor than the rich ; 
hence the majority of the first proselytes of the Gos- 
pel and all new exhibitions of it in a way of reform 
are of the less wealthy class of society — of course 
less learned and of less accomplished manners. The 
first formation of these new converts into religious 
society is apt to prove a severe trial to their manners. 
Coming into the nearest and most intimate connec- 
tion with those whom till now they have only re- 
garded according to the common feelings of nature 
or of interest, demands are made upon their affec- 
tions which their habits have not prepared them to 
supply. In endeavoring to be polite they may be- 
come awkward, and in trying to do they may over- 
do ; and instead of pleasing everybody they please 
nobody. Their sincerity may fall under suspicion. 
These seem to have been among the causes which 
have led some to think, that a religious walk in- 



•o4b DISCOURSE FIFTEENTH, 

stead of being " unto all pleasing," is only worthy 
of the Lord when it is pleasing to none, and that 
the most worthy Christians are the most singular if 
not eccentric. It is impossible that an accomplish- 
ed scholar like St. Paul, not to say Christian, could 
desire that the disciples of Jesus should forever re- 
main ohnoxious to the reproach of singular and rude 
manners reduceable to no rules or true standard of 
correctness. To walk worthy of the Lord must at 
length become a habit, arsd the habits of all com- 
munities must cease to he singular and become imi- 
tative. A church will finally give tone to the cha- 
racter of society. The desire of the Apostle -there- 
fore embraced this effect, that the walk of his breth- 
ren should be worthy of imitation. Persecution 
must sooner or later cease. Christianity must be- 
come a peaceful condition of the most desirable so- 
cial form. Many poor Christians will become rich, 
will educate their children, and prepare them for 
various stations and professions; and rich men will 
join the churches. Will then this state of things be 
worthy or unworthy of the Lord? The truth is, 
riches and poverty are only relative terms, and as 
states or conditions they are relative in degrees. In 
the Roman Empire individuals held es-tates equal 
to small kingdoms, and the slaves on estates were 
like armies. Now when the rich degrade the poor, 
they act unworthy of the liOrd. And the poor act 
unworthy of him, when they use their piety and 



349 

Christian society, so as to claim for their own man- 
ners general admiration. 

" Increase in the knowledge of God." Being 
filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom 
and the walking worthy of the Lord unto all pleas- 
ing become means by which we may increase in 
the knowledge of God. Knowledge of laws and 
manners improve and perfect the taste. Theology 
will never become profound among a people whose 
taste is false and vicious. The revival of letters or 
learning after the darkness of the middle ages fur- 
nishes striking instances of learning without taste. 
The peculiar mode of genius called taste, apper- 
tains to religion and morals as well as letters. The 
thing itself is not easily defined, but its presence or 
absence in the mind is very obvious from the pro- 
ductions themselves of the mind. Instances of 
rudeness and grossness of taste occur in the incipi- 
ent advancements of mind, which are not known 
while the mind remains stationary in ignorance. We 
see in the books, that their authors wasted great 
mental energies and labors to no purpose. And 
the walk of Christians was but too much like the 
books. Great zeal was often untempered by know- 
ledge. The fault was not in the quantity of the 
work but the quality. The historical critic if he 
does not censure feels compelled to pity rather than 
to praise. But our plain, unsophisticated, uncor- 
rupted Christians, as they esteem themselves on ac- 
count of their inattention to matters of taste, claim 
30 



350 PiSCOURSE FIFTEENTH. 

all the increase of the knowledge of God and regard 
them who aim at refinement as superficial. There 
may indeed be more delicacy of perception than 
depth of thought; but the bluntest edges and points 
do not surely penetrate deepest. We increase in 
the knowledge of God very slowly if at all by any 
direct action of the mind without tke aid of means, 
and many of these must be moral ones. The mo- 
ral sensibilities are improved and refined by habits. 
Immoral men do not like to retain God in their 
knowledge or to think of a Holy and a Perfect Be- 
ing. One who walks worthy of the Lord is apt to 
learn and is also desirous to learn. 

Moreover St. Paul desires, that the Colossians may 
be strengthened with all might, according to his 
glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering 
withjoyfulness. Supernatural or divine strength is 
constantly insisted upon throughout the New Testa- 
ment. Natural strength like natural life pes tains 
only to the natural man. It subserves only natural 
ends. Religious or gracious strength is according 
to his glorious power, that is, the power of his re- 
surrection. He was "declared to be the Son of God 
with power according to the spirit of holiness, by 
the resurrection of the dead." The gracious power 
which w T orks in us both to will and to do according 
to his good pleasure, is as much above nature as is 
the dead body raised by the power of God. The 
effects of this glorious power are unto all patience 
and long-suffering with joyfulness. That all pa- 
tience and lon£ suffering should be withjoyfulness, 



bt. Paul's desiees. 351 

must indeed require divine strength. They natu- 
rally depress and exhaust the strength. That man 
seems to have no constitutional or instructive pa- 
tience, is evident in children. The first lessons we 
take in patience are all of necessity. It is this glo- 
rious power which converts patience and long-suf- 
fering by its strengthening might into joyfulness, 
and enables us to give thanks to the Father for 
making us meet to be pai takers of the inheritance 
of the saints in light. 

The phrase making us meet curresponds with 
the Scriptural doctrine, that it is not enough that 
heaven should be prepared for us, but we must also 
be prepared for heaven. " I go to prepare a place 
for you, that where I am, there my servants may be 
also." For these places they were prepared as 
good and faithful servants. " Well clone good and 
faithful servants, enter ye into the joy of your Lord l- } 
The necessity of preparation for places or situations 
is evident to observation. An uncommercial peo- 
ple are not meet for a commercial city. A tribe of 
h unters are not meet for agriculture. A northern con- 
stitution is not meet for a southern climate Europe 
after being much civilized was conquered by barba- 
rians and remained for a long time in a state of bar- 
barism. Civilization did not commence again un- 
til the people were made meet. These wild tribes 
of men underwent great physical changes. Their 
minds were changed by the instructions they re- 
ceived in the schools. These schools were intro- 
duced by learned exiles or by native men of genius. 



352 DISCOURSE FIFTEENTH. 

The arts were revived and children were appren- 
ticed. But the marble palaces and temples of Greece 
and Rome were not admired nor enjoyed by the 
the fierce warriors of the East and North. These 
horse-men and tent-men were not meet for civilized 
society and religion. The splendid halls were to 
them like prisons. 

Their march was o'er the mountain top, 
Their home was in the plain. 

The inheritance of the children of light is not for 
children of night nor of darkness; they are not 
meet for it, for they love darkness rather than light. 
They would destroy the good in heaven, as the bar- 
barians laid waste the cultivated fields of Europe, 
and destroyed the works of art. We are made meet 
for the inheritance of the saints in light being re- 
deemed by the blood of God's dear son, by the for- 
giveness of our sins, — by being filled with the 
knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual 
understanding, by walking worthy of the Lord unto 
all pleasing and increasing in the knowledge of 
God, by being strengthened with his might accord- 
ing to his glorious power unto all patience and long- 
suffering wilhjoyfulness, and by giving thanks unto 
the Father. 

The little value which religious instructors set upon 
religious habits seems to be referable to an oversight 
or an inattention respecting the nature of rewards and 
punishments. Good and bad habits are rewards 
and punishments in this world. Their uniformity 
of consequence shows clearly, that they are not ac- 



st. paul's desires. 353 

cidental. Virtue and vice both resolve themselves 
into habits. We do not merely this or that virtuous 
or vicious act, but we become vicious or virtuous. 
Device and aversion, love and hatred become ha- 
bits. We love to do or say what we do or say ha- 
bitually. Desire and appetite are anticipated plea- 
sure, and it is well known actually exceed the real 
enjoyment; for the mind in a state of anticipation 
does not estimate accidents or the maximum of 
pleasure. It argues that hitherto there has always 
been some drawback, some limit, some vain effort 
or exertion, but the ideas of pleasure which now fill 
the imagination appear to be all real. No fact is 
more generally admitted than the delirium conse- 
quent upon appetite, or the stimulation of intense 
desire. Habit is the fatal power which becomes by 
the effects of volition, by qui generis efforts, as un- 
changeable as the Ethiopian's skin or the leopard's 
spots. And the reason is obvious in the mode of 
operation just stated ; the very desire or love of sin 
deranges the mind and the gratification of the desire 
increases the susceptibility of delirious influence. 
Hence the mutual and reaching excess which often 
terminates in death. " The wicked shall not live 
out half their days." Sin if left to its course would 
destroy the human race, just as the present system 
of the universe would be subverted if its laws could 
be violated. We see daily examples of tire destruc- 
tive effects of sin upon individuals andf even upon 

whole races of men. The Indian tribes of this con- 
30* 



354 DISCOURSE FIFTEENTH. 

tinent are passing away before our eyes. They are 
drank with revenge, and drunk with ardent spirits, 
and both combine in effecting their ruin. 

I do not cease to desire ;— saiih the Apostle. We 
have stated that desire in this case implies not only 
knowledge but also foreknowledge. No Jew nor 
Heathen however wise and virtuous could have de- 
sired what Paul did for these people. And his de- 
sires did not cease. If all these characteristic traits 
could have been conceived or understood, they 
might not have appeared desirable. It was the con- 
stant desire of them which qualified St. Paul so 
eminently to teach them. In order to be a compe- 
tent teacher of religion, it must be fully known ; 
and the teacher must constantly desire that those he 
teaches may become all that he teaches them to be. 
The system-makers seem not. always to be fully 
aware that they have Christians to make also. 
Every Christian teacher is in a secondary sense a 
Christian-maker. What kind of Christians will he 
make? Formal Christians or spiritual ones? The 
result of preaching may be compared to painting, 
always making allowance for the difference of the 
materials, — those of the preacher seldom being pas- 
sive. The painter conceives the outline of his fig- 
ure. The colors with which to shade it and the 
manner of applying them. He proceeds with his 
work without ceasing to desire that the figure may 
be a faultless one. But he who attempts to paint 
without any definite conception of the figure only 
that it may be a man, and without any correct ideas of 



THE RESURRECTION. S'OO 

the effects of light and shade, deserves not the name of 
a painter. He may indeed make a resemblance 
of a human figure, but it will be only a caricature. 
St. Paul preconceives the outline of the Christian 
character he draws it with a steady and skilful hand 
and shows equal art in the colony. The Chris- 
tian stands forth upon the canvass complete and re- 
quires no alteration or retouching. He shows at 
once the art and the care ol a master. This is not 
a mere eulogy or a flattering picture of a Christian 
who has been seen, but it is a portrait of a Chris- 
tian such as he ought to be. Christianity was then 
new to the Colossians; they had not seen Christi- 
ans live and die. How inestimably valuable was 
this character so drawn for them ! And how must 
such an exhibition of his desires, of his whole heart, 
have endeared him to them ! Who but one of the 
best of men could have habitually cherished the de- 
sire of so many good things for those of whose wel- 
fare he had only heard ? 

Cincinnati, February, 1838. 



DISCOURSE SIXTEENTH. 

THE RESURRECTION. 



Not as though I had already attained, either were already made 
perfect : but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which 
also I am apprehended : but this one thing I do, forgetting those 
things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which 
are before, I press toward the mark for the prize — of the high call- 
ing of God in Christ Jesus. 

Philippians, iii. 12, 13, 14. 

" Not as though I had already attained," — unto 
the resurrection of the dead. Hymenaeusand Phi- 



356 DISCOURSE SIXTEENTH. 

letus had erred concerning the faith, saying that the 
resurrection is past already and had overthrown the 
faith of some ; — construing the word probably so as 
to give it a spiritual meaning. Not only the truth 
of the Messiahship of Jesus is rested upon the resur- 
rection, but also that of the whole gospel. To at- 
tain unto the resurrection is the consummation of 
the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our bodies 
in this world gain no physical perfection from grace 
or goodness. It is presumable that the health of 
Paul was injured by his Apostolical labors, and that 
his life was shortened by martyrdom. Perhaps there 
are but few persons of exalted piety and eminent 
usefulness who do not suffer in their health more or 
less, although religion by restraining vicious ex- 
cesses may thus indirectly contribute to health and 
long life. Old age makes no bodily perfection. The 
organs of thought wear out. St. Paul may have 
been past the meridian of life when he wrote the 
words; — " either were already perfect." He was 
not apprehended of Christ Jesus to attain to bodily 
perfection in this world. " We that are in this ta- 
bernacle do groan being burdened ; not that we 
would be unclothed upon, that mortality might be 
swallowed up of life." " We look for the Saviour, 
the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile 
body that he may fashion it like unto his glorious 
body." Brethren, saith Paul, there is but one 
thing, — the prize of the high calling of God in 
Christ Jesus : forgetting those things which are be- 
hind, and reaching forth unto those things which are 



THE RESURRECTION. 35? 

before, I press toward the mark for that one prize. 
We are called of God in Christ Jesus to press to- 
ward the resurrection of the dead. Our hopes, our 
labors, and our endeavors should not rest short of it. 
The mark is the ancient Meta, limit or bound of 
the race. He who gains the mark gains the prize 
run for. The Mosaic dispensation with all its sa- 
crifices and ceremonies was behind. All those 
things the Apostle once counted his gain, were now 
behind. There were professed believers who were 
looking back still to those things. St. Paul had 
his eye fixed upon those things which were set be- 
fore him in the promises of the gospel, running and 
as with outstretched hands reaching forth to touch 
the mark, and as difficulties and hindrances in- 
creased pressing onwards through them. u He that 
endureth unto the end, the same shall be saved." 
This is the condition of the high calling of God in 
Christ Jesus. To die in the faith is to attain unto 
the resurrection of the dead. To believe in the re- 
surrection from the dead and the life of the world 
to come, to believe when living and dying is to 
overcome the world and death. The resurrection 
of the dead ; — what a prize ! 

The cross despise, 
For that high prize, 
Which thou hast set before us ! 

There is no going back, there is no standing still in 
religion. We may well sing : 

Come on, my partners in distress, 
My comrades in this wilderness, 

Who still your bodies feel ; 
Awhile forget your griefs and fears. 
And look beyond this vale oi tears, 

To that celestial hill! 



358 DISCOURSE SIXTEENTH. 

In times like those in which the Apostles lived, 
the mind had nothing to rest upon or hope for short 
of the resurrection ! As Jews by birth, the destruc- 
tion of their temple and their country and the 
utter dispersion of their nation being foretold by the 
Messiah himself, they fully believed it all. As Co- 
lonists under the power of Imperial Rome, they 
kn ew not the day nor the hour the decree might be 
issued or executed, and thus they stood in continual 
jeopardy. Well might they exclaim ; — As it is 
written, for thy sake are we killed all the day long, 
we are counted as sheep for the slaughter even 
by our own countrymen ! How true was it, that 
here in this world they had no continuing city! 
They mast have died to live a life of glory, and 
suffered with their Lord to reign. The master's lot 
was the only one the servant had to look for. 
^The world neither knew him nor his Father ; it 
hated him and slew him. He rose, not to com- 
mit himself into its power the second time, but only 
to stay long enough with his disciples to prepare 
them to bear witness to his resurrection, and then 
ascended up into heaven in their sight. " Set your 
affections on things above, not on things on the 
earth." St. Paul too had seen Jesus after his re- 
surrection. He was met in the way from Jerusalem 
to Damascus, and was shown by Him how great 
things lie must suffer for his sake. He was appre- 
hended by the Lord Jesus Christ for the prize of 
martyrdom and of the resurrection, and counted not 
his life dear unto himself. He was ready and wil- 
ling to die at Jerusalem and at Rome, 



THE RESURRECTION. 359 

Unbelievers exhaust their ingenuity to find out 
causes and motives to account for the conduct of 
the first Christians. But all is accounted for by 
their belief in the resurrection of Jesus. They had 
witnessed the truth of his predictions respecting 
himself? Could they doubt his promises respecting 
themselves and them that sleep in him ? The reli- 
gion of Jesus without the resurrection would be like 
an arch without its key- stone; it could not be sus- 
tained by reason, it could not be sustained as a sys- 
tem. For if the dead rise not then is not Christ 
raised ; and if Christ be not raised your faith is 
vain ; ye are yet in your sins. Then they which 
are fallen asleep in Christ are perished." If in 
this life only we have hope, we are of all men the 
most miserable. The system of Christianity be- 
gins in fncts which admit of no imagination. These 
must be true or false. Jesus lives in the likeness 
of man, he is crucified to death on the cross, his 
body is taken from the cross and interred in a se- 
pulchre. These are all sensible realities, plain evi- 
dent facts. Well, if the dead rise not, if Jesus rose 
not, nothing more could be done ; there was an end 
of the whole matter. All the invention in the 
world can make no more of it ; faith and hope in 
death and the dead are utterly out of the question. 
It is ascertained that Jesus dieth no more, that 
death hath no more dominion over him. Let this 
statement be reversed ; he liveth no more, life hath 
no more dominion over him, — and all beyond the 
death of the cross would be anonenity. The pro- 



360 DISCOURSE SIXTEENTH. 

phecy therefore was ; — a Thou will not suffer thy 
Holy One to see corruption." Invention may do 
much in producing a false religion. There is no 
lack of humanly-invented religion. But it is found 
to be a general rule that the beginning and the end- 
ing are in conjecture. The life and death of a man 
are among the plainest and most common of all 
things. But that the friends of a man should bear 
witness that he rose from the dead, is a single case 
and stands recorded by itself without a parallel. 
Now when a religion is founded upon these facts, 
we cannot pronounce the first one to be incredible 
by itself, but we shall find both of the facts record- 
ed pressing upon our attention as incredible. Was 
the resurrection invented ? If so, was it invented 
before hand ? Not surely by these witnesses. This is 
shown in almost every page of the gospel. But the 
witnesses themselves really did believe. Men 
can give no stronger proof of sincerity ; they sealed 
their sincerity with their own lives. Let us now 
hear the living Jesus. u I am the resurrection and 
the life; whosoever believeth in me, though he 
were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth 
and believeth in me, shall never die." Here are 
the materials for the religion of One who was al- 
most daily predicting his own death by violent 
hands. Let us hear him subsequently to his cruci- 
fixion by the Romans. " I am he that liveth and 
was dead; and behold ! I am alive forever more, 
Amen !" 

Theie never was a time in which the same nnm- 



The REStlRRECTio^. 361 

ber of events combined to favor the establishment 
of such a religion as Christianity, and the down- 
fall of such a religion as the one which ended with 
the destruction of Jerusalem. The Babylonian 
captivity and the return from it though foretold by 
prophets, bore little resemblance to this ecclesiasti- 
cal catastrophe. Of the destruction of Jerusalem 
Jesus was the only living prophet ; and he, contrary 
to all other prophets, proved the truth of his pro- 
phetic office in his own person while claiming to be 
the Messiah so long and so earnestly expected. 
Those who had heard him foretell his own death 
and resurrection and seen with their own eyes the 
literal fulfilment of his words, could not doubt his 
predictions of things to happen which might have 
a political accomplishment. This most interesting 
event was not foretold figuratively nor poetically ; 
the only figurate expressions were quoted from the 
ancient prophets, and were either explained or used 
in the meaning commonly understood. The abo- 
mination of desolation or the abomination that 
maketh desolate, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, 
was not liable to misconstruction. Also the shaking 
of the powers of heaven and such like expressions, 
were all familiar to the readers of the prophets. All 
the old Avars and conquests were foretold in this 
manner. The signs too of these coming calami- 
ties were all foretold, so as to come under the ob- 
servation of some of (he living generation. " When 
ye shall see Jerusalem encompassed about with ar- 
31 



362 



DISCOURSE SIXTEEN ^H 



mies, then know that the time clraweth nigh*' 3 
This once holy place is still trodden down of the 
Gentiles. And the daily sacrifices have never since 
been offered up where the national altar stood, down 
to the present time. These predictions and their 
fulfilment not only prove the prescience of Jesus, 
but are a matter of fact confirmation of the gospel 
as a dispensation distinct from that of the sacrificial 
law. For if the legal sacrifices and ceremonies are 
really necessay in the kingdom or church of the 
Messiah, either the plan has failed or the Messiah 
has not come ; and before he does come, a new 
temple must be built in Jerusalem, and a new altar 
to offer up upon it the daily sacrifices after they have 
ceased for more than eighteen hundred years ! 

" But I follow after, that I may apprehend that 
for which I am appiehended of Christ Jesus. 7 '' How 
mysterious, how wonderful in many instances is the 
manner in which Christians and ministers are called ! 
How nearly in some respects does it resemble the 
apprehension or arrest of a fugitive, or the capturing 
of a prisoner ! Paul called himself the prisoner of 
Jesus Christ. He was persecuting or fighting against 
Jesus Christ 5 but the great Captain of salvation 
took him prisoner, not to punish and execute 
him but to make him partaker of his resur- 
rection. Merciful and gracious conqueror ! The 
resurrection of the apprehended prisoner was 
not yet attained to ; it was to be followed after and 
to be apprehended by him. " Walk worthy of 
the vocation wherewith ye are called." What an 



THE RESURRECTION. 363 

ignorant and erring creature is man, and how mis- 
chievous may he become ! " And I thank Christ 
Jesus our Lord who hath enabled me, for that he 
counted me faithful putting me unto the ministry ; 
who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and 
injurious, but I obtained mercy, because I did it ig- 
norantly in unbelief." The Providence of God sub- 
serves the purposes of his grace. Sinners fight 
against God. What folly ! what madness ! The 
prosecutor, the blasphemer is on his way to Damas- 
cus to do more injuries to the disciples of Jesus. 
The eye of Providence is upon him ; a light from 
heaven above the brightness of the Sun suddenly 
strikes him blind and a voice calls him by name. 
The heart is subdued, the sinner is convinced of 
his sins, and he is directed to find the Saviour. The 
Prince who is exalted to the right hand of God to 
give repentance to Israel, gives repentance to this 
son of Benjamin, this self-righteous Pharisee. But 
though his call to the Apostleship is distinctly sig- 
nified, he is not miraculously justified. Blind as he 
is, he is to be led on to Damascus, and Ananias who 
understands the plan of salvation is to instruct him. 
" Brother Saul," — cries the messenger of mercy, — 
"rise and be baptized and wash away thy sins, call- 
ing on the name of the Lord." Strictly speaking 
perhaps sinners are never miraculously justified, for 
if they were would they not be justified by a mira- 
cle and not by faith ? . The experience of St. Paul 
corresponds with his writings. His faith came by 
his hearing and his hearing by the word of God, 



364 DISCOURSE SIXTEENTH. 

So he too verified the prediction ; — " it shall come 
to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the 
Lord, shall be saved, for the same Lord is rich over 
all that call upon his name, whether Jew or Greek." 
His Apostleship is now fully confirmed. The Lord 
even Jesus who was crucified, appeared unto him 
by the way and made himself known by name. 
T h eref ore h e m u st h ave rise n fro m the dead. "Have 
I not" says he, "seen Jesus Christ '? Am I not an 
Apostle, or a witness of the resurrection?" 

Awakenings or convictions for sin, conversions or 
justifications, and calls to the gospel ministry are all 
intended by Jesus Christ to enable us to attain un(o 
the resurrection of the just. But how many diffi- 
culties and enemies are to be overcome, how much 
labor and suffering are to be endured before we ap- 
prehend that for which we are apprehended ! The 
motto of every Christian and minister should be ;— 
" not as though I had already attained." We are 
called to glory and to virtue, to immortality and 
eternal life. The prize of our high calling is in the 
nature of a reward as all prizes are. So run, that ) T e 
may obtain the prize. The excitabilifj^ of the hu- 
man constitution is adapted to (he excitement of 
motives. And as a proof of the superiority of our 
nature over the nature of the lower animals, motives 
of the most abstract, remote, and intellectual kind 
may be made to act the most powerfully and dura- 
bly upon us. The hardest earned prizes and vic- 
tories are the most highly enjoyed. Glory and honor 
must be won or conquered. There are persons of 



THE RESURRECTION. 365 

minds so peculiarly formed or habituated (hat they 
can sublimate the resurrection of the body all away. 
But notwithstanding the piety and spirituality which 
they claim to themselves, it is not to be concealed 
that the resurrection of the Lord Jesus is apt to oc- 
cupy but a low place in their religion. The ques- 
tion, with what body do we rise, seems to have been 
coeval with the doctrine. The similitude of the 
seed-grain carries the subject perhaps to the extent 
of our comprehension. When we are told that it 
is sown in corruption and raised in incorruption, we 
have not sufficient data to reason upon the subject; 
but it is not so much reason which we need as con- 
fidence. The Holy One saw no corruption. He 
gave his disciples sensible demonstration of his pow- 
er over death. Our bodies shall see corruption, but 
shall they be beyond the power of his resurrection ? 
We gain faith in a power over death by a know- 
ledge of the fact, though we cannot follow the mode 
of operation. But indeed we have more to do than 
to reason about possibilities. Prizes or rewards are 
not to be gained by argument but by effort. " This 
one thing I do, — I press to the mark." There is a 
point of assurance or confidence to which the mind 
may attain, in which it will not reason but act. " I 
know and am persuaded, 5 ' — says the Apostle. 

The Jewish world or dispensation which once 
contained all the hopes of the Jews, was hastening 
to its dissolution. In a few years that ancient sys- 
tem and fabric of things which had survived so 

many changes and witnessed the destruction of so 
31* 



366 DISCOURSE SIXTEENTH. 

many mighty empires, would only exist in history 
The prophetic word had been heard, understood 
and believed, — that not one stone should be left up- 
on another of the only temple in which were con- 
centrated all the essential requisites of the legal 
worship, — and the parable of the budding tree suffi- 
ciently indicated the near approach of the time, 
But the pious and patriotic agonies of the Jewish 
converts of Jesus were not only relieved, — their 
souls were inspired with new and immortal hopes 
by the resurrection of their prophet and teacher. In 
one sense, their nation and law saw no corruption 
before they rose again to a new and perfect life in 
the gospel and the church of Jesus Christ. " He 
taketh away the first that he may establish the se- 
cond." What a contrast between these hopes and 
this assurance, and the utter despair of those who 
lost their all in the ruins of their city and temple if 
indeed they survived those ruins ! It was well said, — 
" God hath not cast away his people." Jesus, the 
risen Jesus was of the tribe of Judah and of the seed 
of David according to the flesh. Paul was of the 
tribe of Benjamin. All the Apostles and first disci- 
ples were Israelites. While tUen as true patriots 
they labored and prayed for the salvation of their 
countrymen, and looked forward to the time when 
all Israel should be saved, they had the pledge of 
that final promise in the resurrection. He lives, 
he reigns and he must reign, until all his enemies 
are put under his feet. The wisdom of God is ma- 
nifest in this whole arrangement and the order of 



THE RESURRECTION. 867 

event*. The beginning of these tragical scenes 
was delayed long enough for the witnesses of the 
resurrection to give their testimony general publici- 
ty, and the days were shortened for the elect's sake. 
Had they been prolonged to the utmost measure to 
which such exterminating wars may be carried, no 
Jewish flesh in the country could have been saved ; 
the believers in common with the unbelievers must 
have been destroyed. The condition of the first 
Christians was very different from ours, and our 
condition would be very different from what it is 
had theirs been as ours is now. They believed in 
the resurrection. We reason about it. To them 
it was the prize, the reward of their losses and suf- 
ferings unto death. These converts from Judaism 
without confidence in the resurrection of their Lord 
and Master and without any hopes of their own re- 
surrection, must have sunk into the depths of wretch- 
edness and despair. But in this confidence and 
hope they sought a better country, that is a heavenly 
one, therefore God was not ashamed to be called 
their God, and they were not ashamed to be called 
his believing people, for they knew in whom they 
had believed, they knew him in the power of his re- 
surrection. 

If ever the time shall again come when Chris- 
tians must forsake all to follow Christ, can any re- 
flecting mind doubt but that they will all have to 
fall back upon the resurrection ? What could the 
churches now do without this fact and this doctrine, 
if the scenes through which the primitive Christians 



368 DISCOURSE SIXTEENTH, 

passed, were to be acted over again, if he who 
should seek his life should lose it, and none but 
those who were willing to lose their life for Christ's 
sake should find it ? We now can see how the spe- 
culations of Hymenaeus and Phiietus overthrew the 
faith of some. The Apostle might well say, that 
their words will eat as doth a canker ; for what 
foundation was left for faith, or what object of hope 
if all that had been taught as doctrine and as facts 
is to be resolved into personal experience ? The 
Acts of the Apostles and the Letters" to the Churches 
must convince every unprejudiced reader, that Paul 
did not mean merely to eulogize himself. What 
was his whole life from the commencement of his 
ministry at Damascus to the day that he finished 
his course, but a reaching forth and a pressing to- 
wards the mark for the prize of his high calling ? 
All worldly and selfish motives would have been 
out of place here. The convulsions and revolu- 
tions which were just at the door, were too over- 
whelming, — and the prospects of his own martyr- 
dom too certain to admit of any conversation short 
of eternal rewards to account for his conduct. " Bro- 
ther Saul," — said Ananias, " The God of our Fa- 
thers hath chosen thee, that thou should'st know 
his will, and see that Just One, and should'st hear 
the voice of his month ; for thou shalt be his wit- 
ness unto all men of what thou hast seen and 
heard." Every mental philosopher knows, that the 
human mind may not only be controlled by the in- 
fluence of its own imagination, but still more so 



THE RESURRECTION. 369 

with facts and truths. What did Paul see ? That 
Just One, that Jesus whom he had persecuted, that 
Crucified One who had risen from the dead. What 
did he hear ? The voice of his mouth, saying, — " I 
am Jesus ; — I have appeared unto thee for this pur- 
pose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of 
these things which thou hast seen, and of those 
things in the which I will appear unto thee ; deliv- 
ering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, 
as to whom I now send thee to open their eyes, and 
to turn them from darkness, to light, and from the 
power of Satan unto God, that they may receive 
forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them 
that are sanctified by faith that is in me." St. Paul 
adds : — "Having therefore obtained help of God, I 
continue unto this day, witnessing both to small 
and great, that Christ should suffer, and that he 
should be the first that should rise from the dead and 
become the first fruits of them that slept." 

The purpose, the intention, the resolution of every 
well informed Christian's mind should be to forget 
the things that are behind, to reach forth to those 
that are before, to press towards the resurrection of 
the dead. For this we are apprehended of Christ 
Jesus. This is our calling of God in Christ Jesus. 
But the objection is still pressed, that the doctrine 
literally understood is incomprehensible and there- 
fore incredible. It was so to the Saducees. But 
they greatly erred, not knowing the Scriptures nor 
the power of God. What creature comprehends the 
power of God or ail its possible effects ? We may 



370 DISCOURSE THIRTEENTH. 

know (he meaning of the Scripture word resurrec- 
tion in reference to our bodies, and we may know 
that we live by the power of God. But how life be- 
gan to be we only know as a fact ; and we can just 
as well believe in reanimation as a fact. The com- 
prehensibility of things past and future is out of all 
question, unless it be in cases in which we can have 
samples and specimens present to experiment upon, 
and the cases be such as may be resolved by experi- 
ment, But life in its present mode defies all ana- 
lysis or experiment. But it seems to require less 
abstraction or imagination to conceive of a future 
state when presented to our minds under the form 
of the resurrection of the body, than in any idea of 
a disembodied spirit of which we can have no ex- 
ample in this world. 

In ancient times, most of the writers who copied 
the opinions of Hymenaeus and Philetus spiritual- 
ized the crucifixion also. How indeed could they 
do otheiwise and preserve any consistency ? Profes- 
sions and confessions of religion must rest on facts 
or opinions. The christian believes in his heart that 
the Lord Jesus whom he confesses with his mouth 
literally or vocalty, was raised from the dead by the 
power of God. Believing this fact must he not be- 
lieve it as a fact also, that the same Lord Jesus was 
crucified, dead and buried ? There is then no opin- 
ion about the matter. " That which was from the 
beginning, which we have heard, which we have 
seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and 



THE RESURRECTION. 371 

our hands have handled of the word of life, — declare 
we unto you." 

The calling is high. It is of God. It is in Christ 
Jesus. It is above every thing and every considera- 
tion here below. It is of God. This religion is ail 
of God. It cometh down from above from the Fa- 
ther of lights, from the Giver of every good and per- 
fect gift. It is in Christ Jesus. He is the Media- 
tor of the covenant, the head over all things to the 
church, the beginning and the ending, the All and 
in Ml. Without him nothing is and nothing can 
be done. How numerous have the varieties of re- 
ligion become ! Can they all be right? Let them 
be tried by these tests. Which calling is the holiest 
and highest ? Which has the most of life and heaven 
in it? Which can trace its origin most evidently to 
God ? Which can give the greatest indications of 
the wisdom, goodness and power of God ? But above 
all,, which is in Christ Jesus? 

Much of the religion in the world is without 
Christ Jesus • and much that is called by his name 
is not in him nor he in it. Persons -are often found 
ready to acknowledge a God, while they either re- 
ject a Saviour or keep themselves at a distance from 
him. Truly their fellowship is not with the Son. 
They know him not ; the knowledge of him hath 
no excellency in their estimation. They are not 
found in him ; they know nothing of the power of 
his resurrection, having had no fellowship with his 
sufferings, no conformity to his death. The ten- 
dency of unbelief is often first to Deism. It. perhaps 



372 DISCOURSE SIXTEENTH. 

never is the case that a believer who retains his 
faith in a Mediator inclines to Atheism. Sinners 
seem to be easisy beset with doubts whether they 
really need a Saviour who is able to save them to 
the uttermost ! 

There is a notion of perfection which discloses it- 
self every once in a while in the church. It proves 
its impracticability by its short career, and in some 
instances by ending in opposite extremes. Profes- 
sors of religion should guard against it. Can they 
oppose a stronger barrier to it than :— " not as though 
I had attained or were already perfect?" 

Cincinnati, February, 1S38. 



DISCOURSE SEVENTEENTH, 

T H A T YE5IK NOT. 



My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin 'not. 
And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus 
Christ the righteous; and he is the propitiation for our sins: and not 
for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole -world. 

I John, ii. 1—2. 

Whosoever commilteth sin transgresseth also the 
law, for sin is the transgression of the law. To write 
therefore that ye sin not, is the same as to write that 
ye transgress not the law. But of what law is sin a 
transgression? Of a moral law or of a sacrificial 
law ? Of a law in force or of a repealed or expired 
law? These two questions assist, each other in fur- 



T II A T YE SIN NOT. 373 

nishing an answer to themselves. The sacrificial 
law, according to the unanimous agreement of all 
Christians, either in theory or in practice is not in 
force under the gospel. John himself so regarded 
it in the text ; and in the context he says expressly 
that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin. 
Of course the blood of no other sacrifice or sin of- 
fering could have been needed. The sacrificial 
law was not in force ; it was not necessary, for the 
merits of the sacrifice of Christ were complete and 
perfect. " A woman," says St. Paul — he is treating 
this very subject — " a woman which has an husband 
is bound by the law to her husband so long as he 
liveth, but if the husband be dead she is loosed from 
the law of her husband, so that she is no transgres- 
sor though she be married to another man ; where- 
fore my brethren, ye also are become dead to the 
law by the body of Christ, that ye should be mar- 
ried, to another even to him, who is raised from the 
dead, that we should bring fruit unto God." Here 
it is plai nly the Apostle's meaning, that the body 
of Christ which was crucified on the cross was the 
true ami real sacrifice for sin and put an end to the 
t}rpicai law : so that a believer in the merits of 
Christ's death is under no more obligation to offer 
the legal sacrifices, than a woman to remain a wi- 
dow by the Li w under which she was married to her 
deceased husband. We are at liberty to be mar- 
ried not to the dead body but to him who is raised 
from the dead. " He was delivered for our offences 
32 



374 DISCOURSE SEVENTEENTH. 

but rose again for our justification." The sin of a 
Christian or a believer is therefore a transgression 
of the moral law; and Jesus Christ the righteous 
is the propitiation for sin against moral precepts and 
principles, and not against ceremonial laws which 
as the Scripture speaks were nailed to the cross. 
There is no ceremonial law in force under the gos- 
pel and therefore no transgression of it. Sinners do 
not repsnt because they have not kept up all the 
form of the law of Moses, they do not repent be- 
cause they have not been circumcised. 

It is remarkable that both St. John and St. Paul 
use the word commandment as if they meant to 
define by it the moral law. " Wherefore," says the 
latter, " the law is holy and the commandment is 
holy and just and good, - - - - that sin by the 
commandment might become exceedingly sinful, 
for the law is spiritual ; but I am carnal, sold under 
sin, for I had not known sin except the law had 
said, Thou shalt not covet." What law said so? 
The tenth commandment says, Thou shalt not 
covet. But the law of carnal or fleshly ordinan- 
ces, of baptisms and sacrifices and offerings and 
burnt offerings imposed upon the tribes of Israel 
until the times of reformation, (as one speaks) said 
nothing about the desires of the heart or truth in the 
inward parts. Of the commandment which en- 
joined outward forms, it was never said, — " I have 
seen an end of all perfection, but this command- 
ment is exceeding broad." But though the tenth 
commandment did say, Thou shalt not covet, if it 



THAT YE SINNOT. €f'/» 

had been repealed, or if it had gone into disuse with 
the law of types and shadows, from that time forth 
it could no longer convince of sin. If the ten com- 
mandments are repealed by the gospel, they con- 
vince no sinner of sin under the preaching of the 
gospel ; but this is contrary to general experience, 
for the great body of Christians in every age and 
country have been convinced of sin in the same 
manner as St. Paul was. The commandment came 
and sin revived and they died. They were con- 
vinced that the law is spiritual and that they were 
carnal, sold under sin. 

Let us return to St. John. " Hereby we do 
know that we know him, if we keep his command- 
ments. Brethren, I write no new commandment 
unto you, but an old commandment which ye had 
from the beginning. The old commandment is the 
word which ye have heard from the beginning. 
And ye know that he was manifest to take away 
our sins ; and in him is no sin. He that commit- 
ted! sin is of the devil ; for the devil sinneth from 
the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God 
was manifested, that he might destroy the works of 
the devil. Whosoever doth not righteousness is 
not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother." 
How can any person who reads this help perceiv- 
ing, that it all refers to the moral law and what is 
called its eternal obligation. It is the same as though 
lie had said ; — I write unto you that ye transgress 
not (he moral law ; and if any man do transgress 
the moral law we have an advocate with the Fa- 



376 DISCOURSE SEVENTEENTH. 

ther, we may not go to the legal sacrifices but to 
Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation 
for our sins and not they, and not for ours only but 
for the sins of the whole world. It would be to con- 
tradict the whole of the New Testament to suppose 
that the text was written, to induce the Christians 
not of Jewish birth to become Jews, to perpetuate 
the ceremonies of Judaism in the Christian churches. 
If there ever was a time when the ceremonial law 
was called the commandment that time ceased with 
the coming of the Messiah; and since then the ser- 
vices and worship are not in the olclness of the let- 
ter but in newness of spirit. 

Two errors must have existed in the life-time of 
the Apostles : first that no change in the legal sys- 
tem could be made by the Messiah, — secondly that 
he would change the law of Moses and not preserve 
even the moral part of the decalogue. The text 
clearly points to thess opinions and corrects them. 
Hence perhaps the unusually strong language of 
the Apostle in this Epistle, as — he that sinneth is 
of the devil, — the children of the devil, — he is a 
liar, — the truth is not in him, — and the like. The 
rule is, when any tiling is changed or altered in re- 
ligion it must be for the better or to give the greater 
facility to its operations. The law made nothing 
perfect but the bringing in of a better hope did. In 
all the points of comparison between the law and 
the gospel this is very striking, if they are compared 
as covenants. " Net as the covenant which I made 
with their fathers, but this, is the covenant which T 



THAT YE SIN NOT. 377 

will make with the house of Israel in those clays, 
saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their mind 
and write them in their heart." The carnal gives 
place to the spiritual. Supposing then that the mo- 
ral part of the old dispensation had been subject to 
the same process of change, could any thing better 
have been substituted in its place ? Admitting he 
had taken away the ten commandments, what bet- 
ter ones could have been given? Take the tenth 
again as an example, Thou shah not covet. Can 
we conceive of any change which would not amount 
in effect to a permission to covet? But surely that 
would not be going on (o perfection. A command- 
ment that is holy, just and good, that is exceeding 
broad, that requireth truth in the inward parts one 
would think might answer for the gospel ; for it is 
difficult to conceive of a substitute for it that would 
be much better or answer a much better purpose. 
What commandment could require more than that 
we should love the Lord our God with all our soul 
and mind and strength, and our neighbor as our- 
selves? The question then of the continuance of 
the moral law under the gospel in a distinct form 
disconnected from the sacrificial and ceremonial 
law, ma}^ be settled upon the maxims or axioms of 
the text ;— " I write unto you that ye sin not, but 
if any man sin," &c. There must have been a 
moral law in full force at that time requiring moral 
righteousness. " Little children, let no man- deceive 
you : he that doeth righteousness is righteous even 
32* 



378 DISCOURSE SEVENTEENTH. 

as he is righteous." All the New Testament was 
written, that we sin not. All its writers acknowl- 
edge and enforce the obligation of moral law. Idol- 
atry and blasphemy and disobedience to parents and 
theft and murder and lying or perjury and adultery 
and covetousness find no supporters in theory or 
practice in this book. Moses and the Prophets can- 
not complain of Jesus and his Apostles for having 
made void the law through faith. As far as obedi- 
ence goes or can go, so far goes the gospel. There 
can be no works of supererogation. The Son of 
God came to prevent the works of the devil as well 
as to destroy them. I write unto you, saith the 
Apostle, not to sin, and if any man sin or has sin- 
ned, I write unto you that we have an Advocate 
with the Father. If any man sin we have no longer 
any need of a legal sacrifice. These sacrifices were 
not advocates, not paracletes or comforters, nor were 
they righteous, and even as propitiatory types they 
were confined to ourselves, — we could not offer 
them for the world. How striking the difference in 
these points of view between law and gospel, al- 
though they agree in morals, for true morals must 
agree ! The first and greatest commandment and 
its likeness the second, are without variableness like 
their author and object Jesus Christ the righteous, 
who is the righteous sacrifice. The most that could 
have been said of the legal sacrifices was, that they 
were innocent of the sins for which they were offer- 
ed. But Jesus Christ gave himself, the Just for 
the uniust He was holv as well as harmless. He 



T II A T V E SIN NOT. 379 

fulfilled the law. There was a positive merit in his 
sufferings and death. 

Who himself bore our sins on the tree., 
By whose stripes we are healed! 

He is the propitiation for our sins. He atones, re- 
deems, appeases, reconciles. We are delivered 
from wrath through him. Sin must be accounted 
for either by the sinner himself or his advocate. God 
must have a mercy seat or a seal of justice ; a throne 
of grace or a throne of justice. He may be recon- 
ciled with the sinner but never with the sin. 

Jesus Christ is our advocate with the Father. 
Though he died for us, he is still our advocate. He 
ascended into heaven and he lives forever to make 
intercession for us. The word is napax^tos, Pa- 
raclete, One who has been called to give assist- 
ance^ a comforter or consoler. Jesus says, — " I 
will not leave you comfortless. I go away from 
you ; I will send you another Comforter, the Spi- 
rit of Truth.'* Here then we have two comforters. 
But can we have any comfort out of ourselves? 
Must not all comfort be felt in our hearts ? Com- 
fort may be produced directly or indirectly. It is 
true, we are not conscious of comfort until we are 
comforted, but ideas may produce comfortable feel- 
ings, and ideas may be produced by information. A 
man may conceive himself to be in the dominion of 
God his King, and he may be informed that the 
King's only begotten Son is his best and firmest 
friend, and that he is together with his Father tak- 



380 DISCOURSE SEVENTEENTH. 

ing care of his interests and doing every thing to 
make him happy. Can he hear and believe all 
this and not feel comfort ? It is not necessary that 
our friends should be always in our presence to 
make us happy. The high prerogative of mind is 
to call iato its presence persons and things at remote 
distances. Faith supplies the place of sight so that 
its objects are not, — out of sight out of mind. 
" Whom having not seen ye love ; in whom, though 
now ye see him not, yet believing ye rejoice with 
joy unspeakable and full of glory." 

Jesus ray all to heaven is gone, 
He whom I fix ray hopes upon. 

The legal sacrifices were incapable of personal good- 
ness ; they died at the altar to live no more. They 
could not offer themselves. They could not pray 
nor intercede. There were priests to force the un- 
willing victims to the sacrifice, and to burn the in- 
cense in sign of prayer. Now priests could not con- 
tinue long by reason of death and therefore were 
many in succession. Not one of all the house of 
Aaron was supposed to be a priest in heaven or ad- 
vocate with the Father. All the mediatorship of 
the law was confined to this world. Until Jesus 
Christ the righteous ascended up far above all hea- 
vens, sinners heard nothing of an advocate or com- 
forter in glory on the right baud of the majesty on 
high. What did the ministers of the synagogue 
teach ? They taught that if any man sin we have 
an altar to which we may carry the sacrifice pre- 
scribed in the law. and the priest would offer it up 



THAT YE SIN NOT. 381 

as a propitiation for our sin. But the Apostles of 
this Mediator of the new covenant wrote that the 
Mediator himself is the propitiation for our sins, and 
that every sinner must come lo God through him, 
and that he not only died for Jews but tasted death 
for every man. 

It would perhaps be difficult to express so com- 
pletely in so few words as those in the text or in 
any other form the intention or end of written reve- 
lation. Every writer who contributed to the con- 
tents of the bible might have said, — I write unto 
you that ye sin not. And all the ancient prophets 
saw or anticipated the day of Jesus as well as Abra- 
ham and rejoiced. " A prophet" said Moses, u shall 
the Lord your God raise up unto you ; him shall 
ye hear." The law and the prophets piophesied 
until John, and John cried in the wilderness, Pre- 
pare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths 
straight. Every preacher and religious writer should 
preach and write, Teiat ye sin not. It is the 
duty of a physician to caution his patients against 
whatever may injure their health, as well as to give 
medicine to cure their disease. To leave men to 
become sick when we can do anything to prevent 
it in order to cure them, would not be ingenuous 
nor kind. The gospel was never intended to be 
the minister of sin. u He that sinneth is of the de- 
vil, and not of Jesus Christ." Pie came not to do 
the work of the devil — to tempt and deceive men 
to sin— but to destroy sin. If any man sin, Jesus 
Christ was not the advocate of the sin or the patron 



S3$ DISCOURSE SEVENTEENTH. 

of the sinner. He came not to destroy the law of sa- 
crifice but to fulfil it, to the end of this law for right- 
. eousness to every one that believeth. If he had 
destroyed the moral law he would have made a 
short work of it. When laws are destroyed there 
is an end of all governments, courts and judgments, 
and punishments must all cease to be, and also all 
the good consequences of government. When the 
books are destroyed, the debts cannot be demanded 
nor proved. In the great day of the final j udg- 
ment the books are to be opened. They have been 
kept, not destroyed. The decisions in that day will 
be according to the law and not by ex post facto 
law. They that have done good shall come, and 
they that have done evil shall go away. All dis- 
tinctions between right and wrong are founded on 
moral law. To suppose that the Messiah destroy- 
ed the moral law even by fulfilling it, is to suppose 
in effect that he destroyed all justice and judgment 
and the final day of judgment. For a righteous 
God cannot be conceived to govern righteously 
without laws, because just and equitable govern- 
ment must have respect to the obedience or disobe- 
dience of the governed and they cannot know what 
is obedience or disobedience without law. The ten 
commandments have been distinguished as con- 
taining two distinct kinds of requirements, — first 
those pertaining to men, — called the two tables of 
the law. This division is natural. The first table 
forbids idolatry and profane and idle swearing, and 
requires that a certain portion of time should be set 



T HAT YE SIN NOT. SS3 

apart for the worship of God. Let it be supposed 
that this table was repealed or that it is not in force 
under the gospel, and must it not be perceived that 
obedience of it could not be enforced nor disobedi- 
ence of it punished 1 Idolatry and swearing and ne- 
glecting all times of worship would not be a trans- 
gression of a repealed law. Laws no longer in force 
are notbrougrit into court. And if they should be^ 
St. Paul's argument would be urged against them, 
that we are dead to such a law, and of course it is 
dead to us or null and void to all legal intents and pur- 
poses. But if it be argued that the gospel sets aside this 
first table to make way for another, can the place ira 
the new enactment be pointed out ? Where is it writ- 
ten ? Will it still be argued as it often has been ? 
that it is in the spirit not in the letter besause the 
letter killeth ? Does then the letter, thou shalt have 
no other Gods before me, kill ? Does the letter, 
thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or 
any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above or 
that is in the earth beneath or that is in the waters 
under the earth, kill? Does the letter, thou shalt 
not bow thyself down to them nor serve them, killl 
If so, what does the spirit do ? Not surely give life 
to these idolators. St. Paul's comp^ risonis, that the 
letter which was made glorious had no glory in this 
respect by reason of the glory that excelleth. So the 
sun makes the moon glorious by the light it com- 
municates, but the moon hath no glory or light of 
its own ; it only reflects a portion of the light that 
excelleth, the light of the sun. All this is strictly ap~ 



384 DISCOURSE-SEVENTEENTH. 

plicable to the legal types and emblems. But to 
spiritualise the moral law, the letter of it must be 
preserved. Thus, it is said that truth is required in 
the inward parts. The spirit of the law against idol- 
atry forbids it in the heart. God is indeed a spirit, 
"and. they that worship him must worship him in 
spirit and in truth." But how could the abrogation 
of the second command or prohibition enable one 
any more effectually so to worship ? Idolatry is an 
error in itself, it is always so. The law makes the 
fact known to us. How could the concealing of the 
fact render devotion more spiritual ? If the letter- 
kills it kills the idolator, that is, it condemns him for 
a literal and actual departure from spiritual worship. 
Is a profane swearer to be told that the Lord will 
hold him guiltless, or is he to be told that the law 
is repealed ? He must be told the truth. Behold ! 
how the Lord spiritualized the law ; I say unto you, 
swear not at all by any name or thing. The whole 
spirit or disposition or excitement is wrong. There 
is not a word about the repeal of the letter, for that 
would be a giving up of the principle. The prin- 
ciple is expressed in the letter. 

In regard to our duty towards men does not the 
same mode of reasoning hold good ? What is the 
law of life, of property, of character, of marriage ? 
Is it not, thou shalt not? Is not the principle of 
right in each individual possessor clearly implied? 
Now if these prohibitions, these thou shalt not were 
removed or taken away by the gospel, what has it 
given in their place as greater or better security ? 



T II A T YE SIN NOT. 385 

Will it be said that the gospel precepts are more 
spiritual and control the heart? Do they then say 
more or imply more than, thou shall not covet any 
thing that is thy neighbor's ? It is a favorite maxim 
with wise and good men that God does nothing in 
vain. And would it not be vain to repeal the literal 
prohibition, thou shalf. not covet, in order to re-enact 
it ? In its primitive meaning it is so exceedingly 
broad that it seems to be impossible to conveive how 
it could be made broader in any new version, nor 
have we any evidence that in the New Testament it 
is more spiritual or heart-searching. " Was then that 
which is good made death unto me? God forbid; 
but that sin by the commandment might become ex- 
ceedingly sinful." No two points can be set in greater 
contrast than the precepts of the moral law and sin. 
But the moral law has no justifying merit for its trans- 
gressors. Most truly it has not, and this is one of the 
strongest proofs of its distinct nature and office from 
the sacrificial law and of its not being repealed or re- 
pealable. Moral precepts under the gospel would be 
equally destitute of redeeming merit. The object of 
redemption is not to get rid of the moral law, but just 
the reverse. A repeal of a law because it is violated, 
is in a direct manner to give the advantage or vic- 
tory to the sinner and to shame and defeat, the law 
principle of government. If any man sin, he is not 
to go to the law he has transgressed for pardon. 
Sinners under the Mosaic dispensation did not go to 
the ten commandments for pardon. It is said ex- 
33 



388 DISCOURSE SEVENTEENTH. 

pressly, that he who sins under the written law shall 
be judged by it, and they who have sinned without 
written law shall be judged without it and accord- 
ing as they have been governed by a regard to their 
consciences. Might it not be as reasonable to sup- 
pose that the conscience is repealed by the gospel, 
as that the moral law is? The Jaw is written on the 
conscience in so far as the knowledge of sin is by 
the conscience. The maxim is, let him who is with- 
out sin cast the first stone. And they being convicted 
by their own consciences went away one by one. 
The gospel brings repentance and pardon to sinners. 
Repentance is an act of homage to law and conscience. 
" For we know that the law is holy, but I am car- 
nal, sold under sin. If I do that which I allow not, 
I consent under the law that it is good." To be 
sorry for sin is to extol the law. Sinners when called 
to account for sin, if they do not blame themselves, 
must blame the law. Those who will not repent 
blame the law. But the language of repentance is; 
— "against thee and thee only have I sinned and 
done this evil in thy sight, that thou mighlest be 
justified in thy saying and clear when thou judgest 
(according to thy law.)" To the pardoned sinner 
the language of the gospel is ; — " Sin no more lest 
a worse thing come upon thee." God hath conclud- 
ed all under sin that he might provide redemption 
for all. Under the law of sacrifice, almost every per- 
son and case had its peculiar remedy or modifica- 
tion or atonement. The victims varied and the man- 
ner of offering them. But Christ is one and his of- 



THAT YE SIN NOT. 367 

fering is, — One for all and once for all. Take away 
the name of Jesus Christ from any thing in religion 
and it is of no use ; hence the cross of Christ is one 
cross. All other crosses are but Christian's crosses. 
" Let him take up his cross and follow me," — has 
as his cross no merit, nothing to glory in. Must 
there be propitiation for Jews and for the whole 
world? Jesus Christ the righteous is that propitia- 
tion. Does a holy, harmless and undented high 
priest become necessary for us? He is such an High 
Priest. Do we need as redeemed sinners an advo- 
cate with the Father to make intercession for us? 
Behold ! our Paraclete. If we say that we have no 
sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 
If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar 
and his won^is not in us. If we confess our sins, 
he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to 
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

The views of human nature which represent it 
as innocent and impeccable are false in fact. All 
the covenant relations between God and men pre- 
suppose men to be sinners, and treat them and treat 
with them as sinners. Innocent and holy creatures 
require no Mediator between them and their Creator. 
No breach of relation having taken place, no recon- 
ciliation is needed. John is the plainest of all writers. 
" My little children I write unto you that ye sin 
not." What can be plainer? But this is not enough. 
What if a man has sinned ? Why in that case ; — 
I write unto you, that the law of sacrifices, to which 
we used to have recourse before we came believers 



388 DISCOURSE EIGHTEENTH- 

in cases of trespasses against the moral law, is super- 
seded by the sacrificial death of Christ. I write unto 
you, that we have an Advocate with the Father. 
The same Saviour that raised us up if we fall 
must restore us again. As backsliders, we are not to 
expect that Jesus must be crucified for us again, or 
that any new atoning merit will be necessary to the 
restoration of the lost comforts of religion. As we 
were at first justified freely through the redemption 
that is in Christ Jesus, the ground of our future faith 
and comfort must be Jesus Christ the righteous, who 
is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, 
but for the sins of the whole world. 
Cincinnati, February, 1838. 



DISCOURSE EIGHTEENTH. 



THE MORAL SACRIFICE 



By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God contin- 
ually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. But. 
to do good and to communicate, forget not: for with such sacrifices 
God is well pleased. 

Hebrews xiii. — 15, 16. 

The primary and simple meaning of the word 
sacrifice is gift. The nature of the gift, the man- 
ner of giving it, and the intention or design of giv- 
ing it may modify the signification of the term. 
The most of the words and expressions which are 
used in the New Testament and form what is called 



THE MORAL SACRIFICES. 389 

its terminology, are taken from the Old Testament. 
The propriety if not the necessity of this is evident 
from the Old Testament education of the first dis- 
ciples of the gospel. Those Hebrews to whom 
this letter was written were perfectly familiar with 
the terms sin-offerings and thank-offerings. They 
knew that the former were given as an acknowl- 
edgment of guilt and in confidence and hope of 
pardon, and that the latter were given as an expres- 
sion or signification of gratitude for favors received. 
The sacrifice of praise is called by the prophet, The 
calves of our lips. The synonyme of the words 
used in the passage is worthy of notice, — offer, sac- 
rifice, giving of thanks, communicate, — the radical 
idea of each being, to give. 

The Pharisee who trusted in himself that he was 
righteous, is a remarkable case. He went up into 
the temple to pray, but instead of praying he gave 
thanks ; and in consequence of his self-confidence 
and contempt of others he becomes the chief object 
of his own thanks. I do and I do not and I give 
are his words. Where a man's trust is, there will 
be his gratitude. True and real praise and giving 
of thanks disclaim all the causes which produce 
self-praise. Pride and opinions of our own merits 
may use the language of praise to God but can 
never feel gratitude. It appears that it is possible 
for Christians as well as Jews to believe, that they 
may have a real merit or an equivalent for then- 
sins in their own acts and deeds, if they are done 



390 DISCOURSE EIGHTEENTH* 

with that view or given to God as sin-offerings or 
sacrifices for sin. Indeed ideas are found in the 
writings of professed Christians upon this subject, 
which greatly exceed any thing among Jews. It is 
affirmed that men may not only merit the pardon 
of their own sins and heaven, hut the salvation of 
other sinners also. But the better informed and 
conscientious Jews adhering to the letter of their 
law did not rank moral and devotional acts among 
the sin-offerings, and seem not to have had any be- 
lief in any excess of merit in any legal sacrifice for 
sin as they were careful to repeat them. 

Be the opinions of men as they may in these re- 
spects, it should seem impossible that any one can 
conceive that there can be any merit or redeeming 
or atoning principle in a sacrifice of praise or in giv- 
ing thanks. " Not unto us, oh ! Lord, not unto us;" 
— i3 implied in every act of thanksgiving. But in 
habitual forms of devotion this important idea may 
escape from the attention. The highest emotion of 
gratitude implies the deepest humility. True devo- 
tion gives to God the fruit of the lips. What is that 
fruit ? To God the Lord be all the glory. Is no 
glory then to be unto the giver of the thanks? None. 
He has nothing save what he has received. How 
then can he glory as though he had received it not? 
How trust in himself that he is righteous? People 
are too apt to consider praise as a pure effusion of 
joy, and humility as an unjoyous state. And there- 
fore humility is associated with sorrow and grief and 
all the external indications of wretchedness. Thus 



THE MORAL SACRIFICES. 391 

it seems to be a like contradiction to hear humility 
butting forth into the sublimest emotions of exul- 
tation and praise. 

Glory, honor, praise and power, 
Be unto the Lamb forever ; 
Jesus Christ is our Redeemer, 
Hallelujah ! praise the Lord* 

In truth it is the humble soul that is called upon to 
be joyful in the Lord. 

By him therefore who suffered without the gate, 
by him who is the Mediator of our praise as well as 
of our prayers, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to 
God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving 
thanks to his name. This sacrifice then is a blood- 
less one ; it is not a sacrifice for sin, not an atoning 
or a redeeming gift. It is giving literal, vocal, audi- 
ble thanks to his name. All the gods of the heath- 
ens had names, and the saints and angels who were 
or are worshipped have names. But give thanks to 
his one and only name. Thanks be unto God for 
his unspeakable gift ! " Oh ! Lord I will praise 
thee." Was there ever a thankful or a grateful 
heart that took any merit to itself before God ? Why 
if there be any meaning or truth in the language of 
praise to God 3 it must mean the disclaiming of all 
self-praise. To offer this sacrifice to God continu- 
ally, is continually to renounce all merit in our- 
selves, to be continually humble in a consciousness 
of our dependence upon God. 

" But to do good and to communicate, forget not, 
for with such sacrifices God is well pleased;" Here 



302 DISCOURSE EIGHTEENTH. 

again sacrifices are gifts, communications; But lit- 
tle good can be done without communicating. He 
who feeds the hungry and clothes the naked, com- 
municates. These sacrifices differ from the former 
in their immediate object. Praise is given to God, 
but good is done to men. God is not worshipped 
or served with men's hands as though he needed 
any thing. " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one 
of the least of these, ye have done it unto me." 
God is well pleased with works of mercy and bene- 
volence, it is more blesseed to give than to receive. 
But in doing- good we cannot exceed the bounds of 
Our duty, and therefore cannot bring God in debt 
to us or merit the redemption of our sins. A good 
work is never an offset to the demerit of sin. God 
never says to a sinner, — You have sinned against 
me, you have transgressed my law, but since you 
have communicated so and so to a fellow creature 
I now balance accounts with you ; my lav/ or jus- 
tice has not further demands upon you. Upon the 
supposition that he does say so or mean so, the re- 
lation between the offence or debt and the value 
paid, would be out of all proportion. The good 
that creatures do or can do is only in their inten- 
tions and wills ; the means is all the property of the 
Creator. Instead of communicating to God, the 
Mediator communicated God's gifts to his fellow 
men. Jesus Christ gave himself that he might re- 
deem us from all iniquity, leaving nothing from 
which we should redeem ourselves or for which we 



THE MORAL SACRIFICES. 393 

should have to pay a redemption price. So we 
sing of the merits of Christ's death, — 

Enough for eachj 
Enough for all, 
Enough for evermore. 

When good works are said to be rewardable, it is 
not to be understood that the reward is in whole or 
in part to be transferred to the account of our past 
sins. The reward is laid up as a treasure in hea- 
ven. " Well done, good and faithful servant, en- 
ter thou into the joy of thy Lord !" Pardon of sin 
is not by works of righteousness which we have 
done, but according to his own mercy. This epis- 
tle to the Hebrews points out to them what kind of 
sacrifices are admissible in the church of Christ. 
And they carry the evidence in themselves that 
they are not vicarious and that they have no 
bearing whatever upon justification. Christ our 
papsover is slain for us. The Hebrews who had 
been converted to Christianity might have asked; — 
What shall we do ? Have we no sacrifices to offer 
as believers in Jesus ? The answer would have 
been ;-— Yes, the sacrifice of praise to God and of 
good to men. " Whoso ofTereth praise glorifieth 
me," — is still a truth ; and it is also true that the 
Lord loveth the righteous. He is as well pleased 
with such moral sacrifices as are good and profitable 
to men under the gospel, as he was with those un- 
der the law. " While therefore ye have oppor- 
tunity, do good unto all men and .especially unto 
the household of faith/ 5 



394 DISCOURSE EIGHTEENTH. 

Among the numerous texts which have been 
successfully quoted in defence of good works, why 
has this one been so often left out of the catalogue ? 
Is there one in Scripture which places good works 
in a clearer point of light ? The principle upon 
which these good works are called sacrifices, shows 
that they do not stand in competition with any con- 
ceivable sacrifice for sin. Devotion or worship di- 
vides itself naturally into prayer and praise, as into 
two primary modes. The basis of all prayer is de- 
sire ; but can desire in any proper sense of the word 
be the basis of a gift to the person to whom it is di- 
rected for a favor ? Do we give or intend to give 
anything to God in prayer ? No. We ask, ex- 
pecting to receive. 

Coming as at first we came, 
To take and not bestow on thee ! 

Prayer is expressed want. It is spiritual appetite 
manifested. It has no resemblance to a compensa- 
tion or a price, and is no type of it. It means ; — 
Give me what I cannot myself procure. " Son of 
David, have mercy on me ! What would'st thou 
that I should do unto thee? Lord, that I may re- 
ceive my sight." This blind man did not trust in 
himself that he should see. He gave to the son of 
David nothing but the expressions of his wants. 
The mind in prayer is in the condition of a recipi- 
ent and not of an overflowing vessel. The concep- 
tions and feelings are those of poverty not of riches, 
of weakness not of strength. But the mind of one 
who brings a sin offering conceives of it as out of or 



THfi -MORAL SAC RI PICES. 395 

beyond itself. Does the conscience feel guilt ? A 
substitute is brought to the altar in the innocent vic- 
tim, but to think of making a substitute for guilt or 
for sin of prayer, is preposterous. Giving thanks 
to his name is to give or to express an acknowledge- 
ment for favors received. It is to give to God as it 
were humility and dependence. We praise him, 
because when we cried unto him he inclined his 
ear and came and saved us. " Oh, give thanks unto 
the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth for- 
ever!" Giving of thanks to God is apt to be con- 
founded with the feeling which follows from the 
deliverance out of any great clanger or the fear of 
it. In this transition the feelings vibrate to extremes 
before reflection can steady them. But in religious 
experience the mind is supposed to be convinced by 
experiment, or by information and instruction that 
a, sinner cannot save himself or merit his own salva- 
tion. He prays to God under this conviction ; and 
when his prayer is answered, his humility is not 
converted into pride but into gratitude, and mani- 
fests itself in giving thanks to the great Deliverer. 
But though the feeling may be exquisite and even 
overflowing, it may still be rational. " Come unto 
me all ye that love the Lord, and I will tell you 
what he hath done for my soul; — he hath put a 
new song into my mouth, even thanksgiving and 
praise unto his name." There is no merit in all 
(his. How is the redeeming price expressed or im- 
plied in, Glory to God in the highest, or in, Be 
ye thankful'? The merit of the Pharisee in his 



396 DISCOURSE EIGHTEENTH. 

own estimation did not seem to lie in his thanks. 
u I fast twice a week and give tithes of all that I 
possess," — his other virtues were negative. 

But to do good and to communicate, — is- there 
not merit in these acts? Do they not contain a re- 
deeming price? To whom then is the good done? 
Not surely to God. " If I were hungry," saith the 
Lord, " I would not tell thee; the cattle upon a thous- 
and hills are mine. The earth is the Lord's and the 
fulness thereof." The absolute merit of the sacri- 
fice of Jesus Christ is, lhat he bore our sin in his own 
body on the tree, that he loved res and gave himself 
for us. He gave nothing foreign from himself; he 
laid down his life, be tasted death for us. But what- 
ever we may communicate God still retains the pro- 
prietorship in it ; we are but the stewards. He com- 
mands us to do good. No act of our obedience can 
have any respect to the past. If a lie had been told! 
and afterwards confessed, it must still remain a lie ; 
and a life time of truth-speaking could not obliterate 
it from history or memory or justify the conscience. 
" When ye have done all ye can do, say we are un- 
profitable servants, we have done only that which it 
was our duty to do." Systems, which make void the 
obligations of obedience to the moral law through 
faith and infer that men who profess to do good works 
as a duty must necessarily trust in them, seem to 
oveilook the nature and relations of men and things. 
Paul calls a sin -offering a sacrifice and good works 
also sacrifices. The first was indeed offered to God, 
but it had no intrinsic moral virtue in itself and had 



THE M R A L SAC R I PICS3. 397 

no relative value save as a type. The last are not 
offered to God, though given in his name and in 
obedience tohiswill. They are beneficent acts to men, 
women and children. Can any one help seeing the 
essential difference in the nature of these sacrifices, 
and the different relations of the givers and receivers? 
Christ is a gift of God and also a giver of himself; he 
offered himself without spot to God understandingly 
and voluntarily. " This is my beloved Son in whom 
I am well pleased." God is also well pleased with 
good works, but not surely because of any equality 
or resemblance or parallel between them and his 
Son. Who will say that good works offer them- 
selves or are offered by others without spot to God ? 
" He that giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord, and 
he will repay." The idea of the rewardableness of 
good works is inconsistent with their redeem- 
ing merit; for not only are these two ends entirely 
distinct, but to attribute redeeming merit to good 
works would be to magnify their importance out of 
all proportion by making them equal to the death of 
Christ. If such can be conceived to be the virtue 
and value of good works, there is no wonder they 
should genera' e in the bosoms of the self-righteous 
pride and self sufficiency. But the bare statement 
is enough to show the impossibility of the case. 
The merits of the Saviour go back with repentance 
to all the past sins of life ; they extend over all the 
time and space embraced in the promises of the gospel. 
He was as a lamb slain from the foundation of the 
34 



398 DISCOURSE EIGHTEENTH. 

world. He was the hope of eternal life which 
God who cannot lie promised before the world be- 
gan. The law which was four hundred and thirty 
years after Abraham could not disannul the promise 
made to him. Can any good work become such an 
object of faith to a believer ? Where are the prophe- 
cies and promises of the saving merit and power of 
good works recorded ? Has the sinner any promise 
on which to rest a hope, that at some future time he 
shall have been able to do good works enough to 
merit his salvation ? Or in other words has he a war- 
rant for his life ? What is life, what but a vapor 
that appeareth but a little time and vanisheth away ? 
Oh, foolish man ! Oh, foolish hope ! This night the 
soul may be required and then where will be the good 
"works and their merit ? 'Behold, the night has come 
in which no man can work ! One of the arguments 
in favor of the language of the text is, that these sa- 
crifices or gifts can hardly be confounded with the 
all-sufficient sacrifice of Christ. If thou believest in 
in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the 
the dead, thou shalt be saved. If thou believest in 
thine heart that God will raise thy good works from 
the dead, shalt thou be saved ? But if a man believes 
in the merits of good works, must he not believe that 
God will raise them from the dead ? Is it not na- 
tural to seek consistency even in error ? Howstrano-e 
are the modes of opinion ! We hear not only of one 
man meriting salvation for others, but of a species of 
redeeming merit from suffering in a future world ! 
The devotion and benificence of the gospel are 



THE MORAL SACRIFICES. 399 

most beautifully set forth in this sacrificial arrange- 
ment. A ceaseless song of praise to God is a con- 
tinual and pleasurable expression of humility. *- : " Re- 
joice evermore and in every thing give thanks." 
" Praise ye the Lord, for it is good to sing praises 
unto our God ; for it is pleasant and praise is comely." 
To give thanks to God i'sto be happy. Dependance 
upon God is very different from dependance upon 
men. Unhappily in the latter, we must be as de- 
pendant upon their caprice and ill-will as upon their 
good will. But God can never afflict us willingly 
but for our profit only, that we may be partakers of 
his holiness. " It was good for me to be afflicted, 
for before I was afflicted I went astray." 

Thankful I take the cup from thee, 
Prepared and mingled by thy skill! 

Man's first relation is to God ; in Him he lives and 
moves and has his being. Between him and his 
God, he being a sinner, there is a Mediator. By 
Himthereforeiethim offer praise to God continually. 
The greatest of all the favors for which we should 
give thanks is this Mediator. To reject him is the 
highest act of ingratitude. Through the Mediator 
God is continually giving benefits to man : man 
therefore should be continually giving (hanks to God 
through him. 

Our second relation is to our fellow men. The gos- 
pel axiom is ; — freely ye have received, freely give. 
" To do good to men and to communicate forget 
not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased." 
We ought to conceive of Grd as a being infinitely 



400 DISCOURSE EIGHTEENTH. 

self-complacent. He is well pleased with his own 
goodness. Can he be otherwise than pleased with 
the reflection of his own likeness ? " He is loving 
to every man and his tender meicies are over all his 
works." Man should love as God loves. " He (hat 
seeth his brother have need and shutteth up his 
bowels of compassion, how dwelleih the love of God 
in him?" Might not man be defined as a giving 
or communicative creature ? If we should institute 
a comparison among animals, should we not find 
that in all except man the power of doing good and 
communicating are very limited and the inclination 
nearly as much so? Other animals are little given 
to hospitality ; the}' entertain no strangers, provide 
no food to give to others in the time of their wants 
and are mostly furnished by nature with a covering. 
Even those animals which live in flocks or compa- 
nies seem to have the social sympathies but imper- 
fectly developed, and to have little dependance upon 
each other for subsistence. In man alone the pro- 
vident and social principles are capable of the great- 
est expansion. The pleasures of benevolence are at 
once rational and sublime and seem to approach to 
the divine. In the midst of enjoyment and plenty 
the wants of oihers may.be forgotten. The fellow 
feelings need the presence of circumstances to quick- 
en them. We have no inherent sympathies with 
suffering of which we are ignorant. And perhaps 
in the midst of our own enjoyments we are natural- 
ly prone to forget the duties of active benevolence, 
and even when the soul is absorbed in the sublime 



T 11 E M ORAL SACRIFICES. 40 i 

enjoyments of devotion. In attending our duties to 
God let us not forget our duties to men. And if 
works of mercy should interfere with our habitual 
hours of devotion, peihnps the divine displeasure 
need not be greatly dreaded considering his well- 
known good pleasure in all human endeavors to 
make 1 1 Is crealures happy. 

Give, — give praise to God, give to him (hat neecl- 
eth, give instruction to the ignorant, give consolation 
to the afflicted, give help to the feeble. The pow- 
ers of our bodies and minds as our substance are all 
more or less communicable and may be employed 
in doing good. Industry and economy in this view 
become important virtues. He who provides nothing 
for the morrow, who makes his own immediate 
wants a standard of his industry and frugality, will 
not be apt to have much to communicate and may 
never rank high in th: list of well-doers. 

Indolence and extravagance become vices in the 
social system. The poor must needs exist in every 
community ; and objects of benevolence are often 
greatly multiplied from causes beyond human fore- 
sight and control. War, disease and famine leave 
behind them a fearful catalogue of wants and mis- 
eiies, many of which can only be relieved by bene- 
volent ministers of mercy. 

To the modern imitators of ancient Pharisees and 
Antinomians these views of this subject are earnest- 
ly commended ; and the practical believer is exhort- 
ed to make full proof of the doctrine advanced. Can 
34* 



402 DISCOURSE EIGHTEENTH. 

the light of Christianity be made to shine brighter or 
more mildly ? How much confusion and error have 
come from misapprehensions of the nature of sa- 
crifices ! It has been proposed to meet the supposed 
difficulties upon (he principle of reaction, that is, so 
to believe as though our salvation wholly depended 
upon our faith and so to work as though our salva- 
tion wholly depended upon our works. But this 
plan seems to admit (hat faith and works are anta- 
gonist to each other. This opposition we hold isnot 
real. No more difficulties exist between them than 
exist between the different sacrifices. If any unbe- 
liever performs good works with a view to save 
himself, he must proceed upon the assumption of 
the integrity of human nature, or suppose that the 
effects of sin can be immediately remedied. But it 
is with the Moral Sacrifices which do good to men, 
when made by believers who are renewed in the 
spirit of their minds, that God is well pleased. Now 
the motive set before the pardoned sinner to induce 
him to do good is, reward in heaven. The judge 
comes quickly, his reward is with him to reward 
every man according to his work. The believer is 
laboring not for pardon for he is already pardoned 
and has received the spirit of adoption ; but he is 
laboring to enter into the rest that remains for the 
people of God, to lay up treasure in heaven and for 
the meat that endureth unto everlasting life. Let 
him bring his offering to the Lord. What offering 
shall he bring? A thank-offering. What shall 
he render unto the Lord for all his benefits ? 



THE DAY OP SALVATION. 403 

What but the fruit of his lips, — to the end that my 
glory (tongue) may sing praises and not be silent? 
" Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zun, for 
great is the Holy One in the midst of thee ! Let the 
inhabitants of the rock sing." But let them remem- 
ber the poor also ; let them not forget to do good 
and to communicate, nor become "-weary in well- 
doing, forasmuch as they know that their labor is 
not in vain in the Lord, in due season they shall 
reap if they faint not. 

Cincinnati, February, 1838. 



DISCOURSE NINETEENTH. 

THE BAY OP SALVATION, 



And in that day thou shalt say, O Lord, I will praise thee: though 
thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou 
comfortest me. Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust and not 
be afraid: for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song 3 he 
also is become my salvation. 

Isaiah, xii. 1, 2. 

If there be any change of relation between God 
and us, it must needs take place in some point of 
time and not indefinitely without any regard to 
time. " In that day or time that thine anger is 
turned away." Does not this bear on the doctrine 
of assurance ? Must not a person who can use this 
language know that his sins are forgiven? If one 
can feel comfort and know whence it comes or the 
causes or reasons of it, how dees this differ from the 



4U4 DISCOURSE NINETEENTH. 

ideas included in justification by faith? This in 
the nature of the case is a change which may be 
wrought in a day or in a short period of time. Faith 
itself is an act of the mind and partakes of the na- 
ture of thought in its quickness. It has none of the 
slowness of works about it. " The mind dealeth 
in truth and the hand operateth upon things." The 
progress of mind in putting forth and exercising its 
confidence, is not to be measured by the same stand- 
ard as manual labor. The magnitude or importance 
of a thought requires not a proportionate length of 
time to think it. A man may believe the pardon 
of his sins and feel the comfort of the pardon, sooner 
than he can express it. All the procuring causes of 
justification exist as objects of faith, and they may 
all be confided in as quickly as the mind can con- 
conceive or think of them. In those cases in which 
the difficulty was in the matter of faith or the ob- 
jects to be believed, the Apostles subjected the minds 
of inquirers to no long course of study, but" if they 
were ready and willing to believe they presented 
the principal object of faith at once to them. In the 
case of the Eunuch a short course of instruction pre- 
pares his mind and fixes his confidence, and he 
asks, — What hinders ? The answer is, — If thou be- 
lievcst. His faith was avowed in that day or time. 
This was all that was necessary to enable him to 
realize his change of relation to God, or his accept- 
ance with God through Christ. It was here that 
his pardon was merited by Christ and God was 
ready and willing to manifest it to him. It was true 



THE DAY OF SALVATION. 405 

that Jesus was the Son of God. It requires not 
the same length of time to believe a truth as it does 
to make or place a truth as an object of faith, or to 
believe a promise fulfilled as it does to bring about 
its fulfilment. When the fulness of time was come, 
in that day it might have been believed that it was 
come. So St. Paul, — u Say not in. thine heart who 
shall ascend into heaven to bring Christ down from 
above, or who shall ascend into the deep to bring 
him up from the grave 5 for the word is nigh thee 
even in thy mouth and in thy heart, that is, the 
word of faith which we preach." Say not, — I can- 
not believe now — to- clay, I cannot believe that the 
Messiah has come until he is come, I cannot be- 
lieve that he is risen till he does rise,— for all such 
sayings resolve themselves into positive unbelief. 
Let the question be, — What if Jesus has come, what 
if he has risen from the dead, what is then to be 
done in order to achieve salvation? Must a man 
work or believe? Not work, but believe. Believe 
when ? Now. The word of faith which we preach 
is, that if thou believe in thine heart that God hath 
raised him (Jesus) from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 
The Lord Jesus can be confessed with the mouth 
in a day and believed on in the heart in the same day. 
The doctrine of assurance rests in part upon the 
principle of government relation which implies the 
integrity of the laws and obedience to them, for it 
is said, — Whosoever keepeth the law but offends in 
one point, is guilty of offending against all. Now 
an offence against any one of the laws is an indict- 



406 DISCOURSE NINETEENTH. 

able offence, and the government cannot protect any 
of its subjects who do not stand unirnpeached or ac- 
quitted of all offences. To forgive a man ninety- 
nine offences and hold him guilty of one, would 
not amount to a leg?J pardon, or a restoration to cit- 
izenship. The change then of a legal relation when 
an act of pardon or reprieve is concerned, must de- 
pend upon entire pardon. Hence when there are 
several indictments against a man, acquittal of one 
leaves him still subject to be tried for the others. 
Criminal debts cannot be worked out one by one 
as commercial debts. Criminal law has none of the 
discretion of a commercial creditor. Conscience 
and sin may not compromise. Conscience too as 
well as a jury can only answer, — guilty or not 
guilty. When God gives the token of pardon to the 
conscience, if there be no error in theory in the 
mind, there can be no mistake in the feelings re- 
specting the extent of the pardon ; the sense of guilt 
is all gone, the whole conscience feels at rest and 
peace. The idea of a pardon in part is theoretically 
unscriptural. Justification b}^ faith is followed by 
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 
Experience corresponds entirely with the doctrine 
of full as well as free pardon. 

Pardon for all that I have done, 

My mouth as in the dust I hide ; 
And glory give to God alone, 

My God forever pacified! 

{i This is the covenant which I will make with the 
house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord ; I 



THE DAY OF SALVATION, 407 

will remember their iniquity no more." In that day 
thou shalt be thankful or grateful ; thou shalt say 
or give thanks with thy understanding as well as 
with thy spirit. Oh, Lord, 1 will praise thee ! For 
what ? Wilt thou know what the Lord hath clone 
for thy soul? "I will praise thee because thine 
anger is turned away from me, and now thou com- 
fortest me." The knowledge of salvation is given 
through the remission of sins. It is not only true 
that where there is no law there is no transgression y 
but also that where there is no conscience there is 
no distinct feeling or idea of guilt and innocence. 
Conscience is to law ; what eyes are to light and 
ears are to sound, not the maker but the distin- 
guisher of right and wrong. Conscience feels guilt, 
and when it does it feels that some law or princi- 
ple is offended, — and the conclusion is easily and 
naturally followed out. The law must have a law- 
maker and the offence against it must be transferred 
to him. Guilty consciences do not philosophise 
upon the divine nature, so as to deduce the impos- 
sibility that God should be angy with the wicked. 
This is no state of feeling to lead to such abstrac- 
tions. Guilt, shame, fear fill the whole sense and 
and all the faculties accord to the feeling. 

But we may theorize now upon the subject of 
anger. It is a human passion. We could have no 
idea of the word if we had never felt anger. It is 
most powerful and is capable of inspiring terror and 
producing great misery. Can God then experience 
or feel a human passion ? What do we gain by de- 



408 DISCOURSE NINETEENTH. 

nying that he can feel anger? The denial surely is 
not meant to insinuate, that God has less .power to 
punish those who break his law than men have to 
punish those who make them angry. Could we 
prove that there is no anger in God, the words 
would still remain. — u Our God is a consuming 
fire." Nov/ a consuming fire is not a human pas- 
sion, but is it less destructive or more resistible? 
Who has not witnessed dispensations of Provi- 
dence or seeming natural events, which have 
proved to sinners like a consuming fire burning 
them up root, and branch? In our own con- 
science anger is a natural expression of displea- 
sure, as love or affection or kindness is of our 
pleasure. The affections of the heart operate in 
pairs or by contrasts, and may be ultimately con- 
trolled by judgment and will. We may think 
we do well to be angry, b'ut-if we are convinced to 
the contrary we cannot justify ourselves. Should 
we see a person pleased with every body and with 
every thing, could we help doubting the soundness 
of his mind or his morals? Different characters and 
facts must be responded to in every correct and well- 
regulated mind. The love or benevolence of God 
is a favorite theme with many who oppose every 
idea or reference to the anger of God, and yet they 
admit that man was made in the likeness of his Ma- 
ker. But the conception of God which makes him 
approve and love all contrarieties or opposite*, makes 
him very unlike our conceptions of men or indeed 
of our actual knowledge of men ; for there is noth- 



\T H E DAY OF SALVATION. 409 

ihg in men better understood than that when one of 
the affections is fixed, there is no power of volition 
that can fix it at the same time and in the same de- 
gree in an opposite one. We may change the ob- 
jects of onr anger and our love, but if we are pleased 
with what we were once displeased, we become dis- 
pleased with what once gave us pleasure. Thus 
while the fallibility of our judgment may be proved, 
the constitution of our affections is confirmed and 
placed above contradiction or caprice. "Though 
thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned 
away from me and thou comfortest me." My com- 
fort flows not from thy continued anger; not com- 
fort but punishment must flow from that. The 
pleasures of religion do not rise or begin from an in- 
sensible state or an immediate transition from sinful 
pleasures, but they begin with a transition from the 
sorrows of repentance. This is the mystery of ex- 
perimental religion to natural men. They under- 
stand not this thing of the spirit. The idea of joy 
springing from sorrow or pleasure from pain, is 
foolishness unto them. But why does the sinner re- 
pent, why is he sorry ? Not surely that he has 
pleased God, cr that he thinks God is pleased with 
him. " We love him because he first loved us." 
But there was a day when his love was first mani- 
fested unto us, when we could feel and believe that 
he loved us, and our love answered to his love. 
" The love of Christ constraineth us." Before that 
day doubt and fear prevailed. Thou wast angry 
35 



410 DiBCOtlRSE NINETEENTH. 

with me~X was conscious of thy displeasure — I 
believed that I had deserved it, and I could find no 
apology, no ground of self-justification. Father, I 
have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and 
am no more worthy to be called thy son. God, be 
merciful to me a sinner! When these distressing 
feelings give place to feelings of comfort, they are 
not explained away as ideal or imaginary ; they are 
on the contrary heightened by the contrast. I de- 
served thy wrath or anger, but it is turned away, 
and now I am not only relieved from the misery, 
but thou comfortesl me : — I will praise thee for this 
grace, so rich, so free, so unmerited by me. The 
Lord hath done great things for us whereof we are 
glad ! How else can we speak of the dealings of 
God with our souls than after the manner of men,un- 
less we mean to exclude all meaning as it regards 
the minds of others from our language? The Lord 
loveth the righteous ; " Say to the righteous, it shall 
be well with him, but all the wicked will he de- 
stroy." The anger of God is not indeed a human 
passion. Upon the supposition that it is like it, no 
like is the same. The likenesss holds true in this 
respect ; — it administers no comfort and admits of 
none being administered until it is turned away. 
But wrath has come upon them to the uttermost, 
that is, justice. The wrath of God in Scripture 
means his active justice. It never errs, never mis- 
takes its objects, and its final effects are not mista- 
ken by them. When the consciences of Joseph's 
brethren reminded them of their treatment of him, 



THE DAY OP SALVATION, 4il 

they could not suggest nor sanction any suggestion 
but that of anger on his part. Reason might have 
prompted a thousand arguments or drawn them 
from brotherly love — and all of them most profound- 
ly philosophical — to prove that a brother could not 
be angry, showing from nature that the thing is im- 
possible; but conscience sets at nought many aspe- 
cious theory which would seem to prove the impos- 
sibility of sin and its punishment. It demonstrated 
to these very men the envy, the jealousy, and the 
cruelty, which a brother is capable of exercising to- 
wards an unoffending and unresisting brother. Why 
could not young brother Joseph be angry if one of 
his elder brethren could be unjust? The mind has 
no logic to disarm the conscience of this conclusion. 
He who feels that he has committed an unprovoked 
wrong, a wrong in principle as well as in fact, must 
be more than usually dexterous if he can quiet his 
fears of the consequences of a fair trial of justice. 
The hardened sceptic who laughs at the fear of the 
vulgar as mere superstition, has a limit beyond 
which presumption itself cannot sustain him. There 
is no scale on which crime can operate, which the 
justice of God cannot reach. " Vengeance is mine 
and I will repay," saith the Lord. This is not the 
language of fatalism. Pate never turns, or turns 
away its decrees, never administers comfort for 
wrath. The idea of God turning away his justice 
and comforting those who were obnoxious to it, 
cannot fail to suggest the idea of a changeable God. 
Can he remain just who ministers comfort to the 



412 DISCOURSE NINETEENTH. 

guilty in the place of punishment? The dispen- 
sation of free and full pardon to guilty sinners will 
ever be the distinctive doctrine of the gospel. 

In that day, when the great sin-offering shall have 
been offered and shall be proclaimed by the heralds 
of salvation in the name of the great Mediator of 
the new and everlasting covenant, thou shalt say — ■ 
for thcu shalt know that the justice of God is turn- 
ed away by that all-sufficient sacrifice, — thou shalt 
say, — The mystery is explained ; God may be just 
and yet the justifier of him that belie veth in Je- 
sus. 

I trust in him who stands between 

The Father's wrath and me ; 
Jesus, thou great eternal mean, 

I look for all from thee. 

He gave himself, the Just for the unjust. In that 
day, when the Prince and Saviour shall be exalted 
with the right hand of God to give repentance unto 
Israel and remission of sins, when thy lowly and 
contrite heart trembling at the word of the Lord 
shall confide itself to Jesus as able to save to the ut- 
most all that come unto God through him, in that 
day shall thy conscience be relieved from its bur- 
den of guilt, and thou shalt say,— 

My soul a witness is. 
Now I have passed from death unto life, now I feel 
peace and joy spring up within my soul. The day 
of justification, the day of the spirit of adoption 
when the Spirit bears witness with our spirit that 
we are the children of God, is a happy day indeed, 



THE D A Y O F SALVATION. 413 

a day to be had in everlasting remembrance. The 
words are evidently a prophecy of the gospel dis- 
pensation, though like many others it may have ac- 
complishment in degrees. If we are authorized in 
remarkable deliverances and when we are consci- 
ous of our demerits to use these words, how much 
more are we authorized to use them when the full 
measure of grace is manifested and brings us into 
the glorious liberty of the children of God ! u Bless 
the Lord, Oh ! my soul, and forget not all his bene- 
fits, for he hath not only healed all thy diseases but 
forgiven all thine iniquities ! 

It is of importance to make this point plain, as 
there is an opinion prevailing which prevents those 
who have embraced it from using the language. It 
assumes that all the turning or changing is in the 
sinner, that God is never displeased with the sinner 
but the sinner with God. Thus the words, " God 
was in Christ reconciling unto himself," are con- 
strued. God, say they, needed no reconciliation to 
the world as he never was displeased with it. The 
world only needed reconciliation to God. It offends 
them therefore to hear of this anger of God as con- 
veying the idea of his being displeased with sinners, 
or of his justice standing in the way of salvation. 
The opinion that every sinner may be saved if he 
will or that sinners may save themselves, in its most 
exceptionable form is included in this doctrine ; for 
the whole doctrine of divine justice not opposing 
any barrier to man's salvation excludes the doctrine 
35* 



414 DISCOURSE NINETEENTH. 

of redemption. Now can we form any conception 
of justice whether pertaining to God or to man as 
being without any discriminative principle? Would 
not such justice sink below the mere mechanical 
action of scales or balances ? In these there are just 
weights, and false ones are an abomination to the 
Lord. " Lord," said Stephen, " weigh not out to 
them (his murderers) this sin." The righteous 
God judgeth righteously. It is plain that if all the 
reconciliation is on the part of the world, no pun- 
ishment can follow from its failure. God cannot 
punish if his justice is not offended, for upon no 
other principle can he say, — Justice is mine and I 
will repay. The meaning is the same as, — Justice 
is mine and I will execute it. Our not being re- 
ciled to God, if he were reconciled to us, would be 
but a minor consideration. But it is a fearful thing 
to fall into the hands of the living God. " Whoso- 
ever shall fall upon this stone shall be broken, but 
upon whomsoever i( shall fall it will grind him to 
powder." God revealed or proclaimed himself to 
Moses, as he who will by no means clear the guilty. 
In his law, he calls himself a jealous God visiting 
iniquities. Love and hatred are constantly placed 
in opposition. " I love them that love me, and they 
that despise me shall be lightly esteemed." The 
laws of nature (so called) cannot be transgressed or 
neglected with impunity. Those who have thus 
offended, find by woful experience that there is no 
place for repentance though it be sought carefully 
with tears. It is not enough to cease to offend, to 



THE DAY OP SALVATION, 415 

escape a consequence. It is wonderful to see how 
the champions of nature, who labor to extol her 
laws in order to undervalue and discredit the justice 
<of God vas set forth in revealed sreligion, can over- 
look the inexorable character of nature's laws, when 
every day's experience and observation prove that 
€hey leave .no hope to those who sin against them 
save in miracles. Neither fire, air, nor water ever 
pardons. Nature with ail the eulogy of her ador- 
-ers nol only shows no mercy, but she regards not 
motives nor ignorance. Well meant errors and 
sincere "mistakes find no pity urtder her irreversible 
laws. By the law of nature -shall no flesh be jus- 
tified which has sinned against it. One dose of 
poison, one serpent's bite or reptile's sting may prove 
mortal. There is no mercy, no forgiveness in na- 
ture; it is all in the gospel. What a strange pre- 
judice — and stranger still that it should be persisted 
in — that sin will not kill ! Why the souls that sin 
are suffering the penalty of death constantly ; and 
?the only exceptions that are found, are those who 
are redeemed from moral guilt and condemnation 
oy the blood of the everlasting covenant. Nature's 
law is, that health is to be preserved by temperance; 
but let a man destroy his health by intemperance, 
and nature will not give him another constitution 
nor make him physically a new creature. Nature 
is not quite passive or neuter towards the transgres- 
sors of her laws and she can and will punish. She 
prays not sinners to be reconciled unto her to avoid 
punishment. She gives no warning but gives the 



416 DISCOURSE NINETEENTH. 

sinners against her up to hardness of heart and re- 
probation of mind, often coming to judgment at the 
moment which yields the sinner her highest plea- 
sures. Destruction comes in a moment. If na* 
ture be not angry nor just the transgressors of her 
laws will suffer no less; and their volition can 
avail no more to remedy the evil than if justice with 
a drawn sword were the executioner. The gene- 
rality of men who reject the Providence of God or 
an intelligent government of the universe together 
with revelation, are apt to slide into fatalism and 
suppose the causes of their misery and their misery 
itself to be alike unavoidable. What is to be, say 
they, will be. And if this maxim extends to reli- 
gion, it cuts off all repentance and conversion in 
theory and practice. 

But Isaiah has rt that God is angry, and that his 
anger is turned away. God is angry with the wick- 
ed every day, but when the wicked turn from their 
wickedness and do that which is lawful and right, 
they shall live. A moral intelligence is displeased 
with sin and with the sinner, but the sinner who 
forsakes sin may become pleasing to moral intelli- 
gence. The evidence of a moral and discriminative 
mind is shown in the consistency of the parts of 
the whole ; there is no accident about it. The rela- 
tions, the principles and the dispositions involved, 
together with the time, are identical and peculiar. 
In that day, — Thou, not another for thee, nor thou 
for another. It is a personal and a matter of fact 
experience. I know and thou knowest ; — there is 



THE DAY OP SALVATION. 417 

no blind fate about it. The law involved is not a 
law of inanimate, insensible matter. Here there is 
power on earth to forgive sins and to turn away the 
punishment. In mere matters of knowledge with- 
out volition or power, gratitude is not generated. 
We praise not the fire which does not burn us, for 
it does not turn away its consuming heat. 

Love we have said is a human passion. Why 
then do we apply the word to God? Is it not pre- 
cisely because it answers to our consciousness and 
experience? It corresponds to our moral pleasure 
or enjoyment; it contrasts with our displeasure or 
anger. But love in man is or may be directed or 
regulated by mind and by will, when moral sub- 
jects are concerned. No words or language drawn 
from irrational or inanimate nature would convey 
ideas so appropriate. For man is the only creature 
which bears such resemblance to the Maker of all. 
Yariety among themselves runs through all the 
classes of animated beings. Man stands at the 
head of the moral and intellectual class of beings, 
if he be not the only species in the genus. He can 
recognize or identify sin and be angry with if. Be- 
hold, a resemblance to divinity ! Conscience in our- 
selves is not wholly imaginary. It is knowledge 
from two sources, — to know together, or a union of 
feeling vnd thought. We rejoice or conclude that 
we have undergone a change of relation to God. 
We have ceased to be his enemies, and he holds us 
no longer obnoxious to his punishment. We have 
now therefore no condemnation for past siqs, 



418 DISCOURSE NINETEENTH. 

Ill that day thou shalt say, — Behold ! God is my 
salvation, not my Saviour only, but my salvation. 
The nearness the oneness of God and believers jus- 
tifies or fulfils the prophecy. "I in you and you 
in me, that we may be one." ' I am the vine and 
ye are the branches ; abide ye in me." " Qf him 
are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us 
wisdom, &c." The doctrine of the unity or one- 
ness of the head and members of the church, is ful- 
ly set foith in the New Testament. God dwell- 
eth in those that love, and they in him. " Because I 
live, ye shall live also." "The Lord is my por- 
tion." " Whom have I in heaven but thee ? And 
there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee." 
But God is become my salvation, now that his an- 
ger is turned away from me. Your sins have sepa- 
rated between you and your God. The guilt of 
those sins being removed from the conscience, and 
the love of them from the affections, nothing re- 
mains to separate God and the soul. Mutual affec- 
tion and union of spirit follow. The mystics (so 
called) have been blamed for their peculiar man- 
ner of spiritualizing, and they may perhaps have 
indulged their imaginations to excess sometimes, 
but the tendency to this disposition of mind is in the 
affections themselves. Not only the vastness of the 
subject but the nature of the feelings lead to poetry 
even in those who were not born poets. The desire 
to communicate from a full heart what language at 
best can only feebly express, lead the mind to sub- 
limate its thoughts. Much of this peculiar manner, 



THE DAY OF SALVATION. 419 

however, it should not be concealed, springs from 
peculiar taste and association. It is regarded as a 
sacred style. 

"I will trust and not be afraid, for Jehovah is be- 
come my strength and my song ; he also is become 
my salvation." If the same meaning is meant to be 
conveyed, why not use the same words? Is there 
not prophetic reference to — 

Father, Son and Holy Ghost, 

Who sweetly all agree 
To save a world of sinners lost ? 

Jehovah is become my strength and my song ; and 
some of St. Paul's trusting and glorying seem near- 
ly if not quite similar. " I can do all through Christ 
that, strengthen eth me." " Rejoice in the Lord al- 
ways and again I say, rejoice." " I will trust and 
not be afraid." We may boldly say, — I will not fear 
what man can do unto me. Strength and song are 
opposed to fear and sorrow. The divinity of the 
Redeemer of the world seems to be set forth is this 
part of the prediction. " Be not afraid, it is I," — is 
in effect the language of every passage in which Je- 
sus appears. 

His presence disperses my gloom, 
And makes all within me rejoice . 

" In the last day of the feast, that great day, Jesus 
stood and cried, If any man thirst let him come unto 
me, and the water that I shall give him shall be in 
him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. 
And this he spake of the Spirit that he should give, 
for he was not yet glorified." And at that very time, 



420 DISCOURSE NINETEENTH. 

the people were drawing water and responding the 

words in this chapter of Isaiah ;— " with joy shall ye 

draw water out of the well of salvation." 

Spring up, oh ! well, I ever cry, 
Spring up within my soul J 

Where there is no certainty there is fear. If we 
ourselves be ignorant, our fears can only be removed 
by confidence in the wisdom and ability of others or 
at least of some one who has manifested an interest 
in our behalf. Jesus is the way, the truth and the 
life. He knows what to do, though he may not in- 
form us. " What I do thou knowest not how, but 
thou shalt know hereafter." " I am the resurrection 
and the life. Belie vest thou this V 9 We must be- 
lieve it as information or truth or we cannot know 
it. He must be trusted as the resurrection and the 
life, or we shall be afraid to pass through the dark 
valley and shadow of death. He also is become my 
salvation as well as my strength and my song. Let 
that mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. 
Is not this to partake of his nature ? " If any man 
have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." 

Thy gifts, alas ! cannot suffice, 

Unless thyself be given ; 
Without thy graces and thyself, 

I were a wretch undone. 

This three- fold kind of language is very manifest 
in the New Testament and is often combined thus: 
— the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ — the love of 
God — the fellowship of the Holy Ghost. The first 
of the three mostly occurs alone, or else coupled with 



THE DAY OF SALVATION. 421 . 

love or favor of God or of the Father. This manner 
seems pretty clearly to indicate if not prove, that those 
who baptized in the three names did not use two of 
them as unmeaning words or forms. The words of 
a prophet are remarkable, — " Awake, oh ! sword, 
against the man who is my fellow, (partner, equal) 
saith the Lord." Compare this with ; — " Grace be 
unto you, and peace from God our Father and our 
Lord Jesus Christ." This is St. Paul's form in most 
of his letters. We cannot think that so concise and 
elegant a prose-writer as St. Paul, would use repeti- 
tions so constantly in violation of all the rules of 
Greek criticism ; and we are not reduced to the ne- 
cessity of thinking so, for he is not an innovator upon 
or an exception to the writers of the three names. 
Are they all substantive nouns, — not names of things 
or qualities, net partly substantive and partly adjec- 
tive? But if it can be proved that the Jehovah of 
the prophet is the Jesus of the Apostles, would not 
the question be settled ? Is not this a name above 
every name, and a name at which every knee shall 
bow and every tongue confess? " Should confess that 
Jesus Christ'is Lord,to the glory of God the Father." 
Is it then to the glory of God the Father, that Lord- 
ship should be attributed to the Messiah? Here in- 
deed is the point in controversy. The texts in the 
affirmative are : — u The Father hath committed all 
judgment unto him the Son, that all men might 
honor the Son even as they honor the Father," — ■ 
that is worship Him. <• Jehovah is also be come my 
36 



422 DISCO tJ R S E NINETEEN f li . 

salvation." " God manifested in the flesh — God 
with us — Christ in you, the hope of glory." 

In him eternal life we know, 
And heaven's unutterable bliss. 

" God hath given unto us eternal life and this life is 
in his Son*" 

The order and arrangement of the words are re- 
markable. In that day, thou shalt first praise God 
as a pardoning God, — then discover more fully the 
greatness and the divinity of the salvation, — and fi- 
nally the power and majesty and glory of Christ as 
having all power in heaven and in earth and all the 
fullness of the godhead. So we grow in grace and 
in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ ; to him be glory both now and forever. Amen ! 
The more a believer knows of the meaning of those 
Scriptures which speak of the glory of Christ, and 
the more experience he has of his gracious power 
to save, the more he will extol him. Jehovah is my 
strength and my song. And they sung a new song, 
the song of the Lamb, saying, u . Thou art worthy 

- - - - for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us 
to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue 

and people, and the number of them was 

ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of 
thousands ; saying with a loud voice, " Worthy was 
the lamb that was slain, to receive power and riches 
and wisdom and strength and honor and glory, - - 

- - and power be unto him that sitteth upon the 
throne, and unto to the lamb forever and ever." All 
this! was to the glory of God the Father; 



THE DAY OFfiALVATION. 423 

The whole creation join in one, 

To Mess the saered name, 
Of him that sits upon the throne, 

And to adore the lamb. 
Worthy the Lamb that died, they cry, 

To be exalted thus 5 
Worthy the Lamb, our hearts reply, 

For he was slain for us. 

It does indeed make sweet melody in our hearts to 
sing of his redeeming love. 

But this we can tell, he hath loved us so well, 
As to lay down his life to redeem us from hell. 
And this I do find, we two so joined, 
He'll not live in glGry and leave me behind. 

What joy unspeakable and full of glory is there in 
a song of gratitude in a truly humble heart! 

Oh I may I bear some humble part, 

In that immortal song ; 
Wonder and joy shall tune my heart. 

And love command my tongue. 

The plan of redemption and salvation opened on 
the day of Pentecost, in all its fulness. Then came 
the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost. Then was 
the gospel preached with (he Holy Ghost sent down 
from heaven. What riches, what treasures of 
grace were then displayed to the souls of sinful men! 
Then was the proclamation made ; — (i Ho ! every- 
one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he 
that hath no money ; eome ye, buy - - - - with- 
out money and wilhout price." The progress of 
experimental religion is from justification to sancti- 
ncation. The first evidence of justification does 
not depend upon sanctificatkm, fm it is not the sane- 



424 DISCOURSE NINETEENTH. 

titled who are justified in the day of conversion ; 
but the ungodly sinners come with repentance to 
the throne of grace seeking pardon. So far as ideas 
of holiness are concerned, they ask the pardon of 
past sins that they may be made holy, not because 
they are holy. The first expression of gratitude from 
a converted soul is limited to his own conscious- 
ness. He perceives, he feels his great - relative 
change. The weight of guilt no longer presses 
down upon his conscience with a confounding and 
overwhelming influence. Being justified by faith., 
he has peace with God through our Lord Jesus 
Christ. To be justified by faith instrument ally, 
faith ought to precede justification. Whatever is 
done ly an agent or an instrument, follows of course 
as an effect of the use or application of the instru- 
ment. We believe before and while we are justified. 
Believe w T hat ? Not surely what w r e do not believe, 
not what we did not knew or of which we never 
heard. To a certain degree, faith must be opposed 
to error and ignorance. But what follows after jus- 
tification? What are its consequences? These are 
all matters of experience, of which we can have a 
distinct mental perception. The condemned, the 
guilty soul in the midst of its heart-felt contrition 
hears of Jesus, hears of his love— of his grace — of 
his power on earth to forgive sins. All these sub 
jects are subjects of recollection, and memory. I 
know in whom I have believed — I remember that 
it was Jesus who was presented as the object of con- 
fidence — I remember that I gave credence to the 



THE DAY OF SALVATION. 425 

promises and to the declaration, Believe in the Lord 
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved — I did trust in 
him and I was not confounded. Now what can any 
one know of Jesus before he hears of him or is in- 
formed, and how can he know more of what he 
has verified, by experience than what he remem- 
bers? Oh! Lord, I will praise thee, for I remem- 
ber that thou wast angry with me and that thine 
anger was turned away from me — I remember my 
former state — I remember the changes and now I 
feel comfort. The preacher who describes sin and 
its consequences and describes repentance and par- 
don, can and does describe the state or experience 
of one who is pardoned. He tells the seeker what 
to hope for when the pearl of great price is found, 
what the privileges of a new convert are. This 
first great work done, — the pardon sealed by the 
Spirit of Adoption and the confidence established, — 
the converted soul does not necessarily repeat or go 
over the same ideas and feelings to continue or in- 
crease its comforts. Memory does its office. Behold ! 
God is my salvation. Even so, — the things of God 
knoweth no man but the spirit of God. Now we 
have not received the spirit of the world but the 
Spirit which is of God, that we might know the 
things that are freely given to us of God. " Have 
ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? 
Unto what then were ye baptized ? they said unto 
John's baptism. They were not then baptized in 
the name of the Lord Jesus nor in the name of the 
36* 



426 DISCOURSE TWENTIETH. 

Holy Spirit. When the day of Pentecost was fully 
come, the disciples knew that God was their salva- 
tion. They had tarried at Jerusalem to be endued 
with power from on high ; and the Spirit of God 
descended upon them and they were all filled with 
the Holy Ghost. 

Cincinnati, February, 1838. 



DISCOURSE TWENTIETH. 

THE PROGRESS OF FAITH. 



For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to 
faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. 

Romans, i. 17- 

Righteousness, justify, justification, justice and 
just, all seem to have a common root or belong to 
one theme and are not identical with love. The 
righteousness of God and the love of God are not 
synonymous. If either term or phrase were omit- 
ted, the other could not be so used as to supply its 
place. Care should be taken not to confound them. 
As for instance, the phrase— not having mine own 
righteousness which is of the law, but the righte- 
ousness which is of God by faith — would not have 
its meaning expressed by substituting love and mak- 
ing it read, — not having mine own love which is 
of the law, but the love which is of God by faith. 
To be justified by faith would not be expressed by 
— to be made love by faith. Righteousness always 
has some reference to a law principle or rule of right, 



THE PROGRESS OF FAITH. 427 

The righteousness of God may mean the great 
or superlative righteousness. But in the strict and 
distinctive sense it means the righteousness which 
God provides or gives, — the righteous sacrifice. All 
the sacrifices under the law were, to say the most 
of them, only innocent. They were not offered, 
the just for the unjust. The personal and actual 
righteousness of the propitiatory sacrifice for the 
sins of the whole world, is revealed in the gospel 
from faith to faith. In the law it was but shadowed 
forth. The revelation is not made from faith to 
works, nor from works to faith, nor from works to 
works. The ceremonial and sacrificial deeds of 
the law have no place in the system from first to 
last. Jesus Christ is the Author and Finisher of 
faith, the beginning and the ending, the All and in 
All. The typical righteousness of the law was all 
made or arranged according to the pattern showed 
on the Mount; but the righteousness of the gospel 
is revealed without such patterns to be believed in, 
and being an object of trust or confidence it was 
not mediated by the hands of a Moses or any other 
mortal. No human labor could add any thing to 
it. The repenting sinner is to believe in God's 
righteousness, that is, in his righteous Son Jesus 
Christ. The just or justified live by this faith. 

It is well known that there are persons who call 
themselves philosophers in the same sense as we 
call them unbelievers, and hence the common term 
infidel philosophers in opposition to Christian phi- 
losophers. But anciently philosophers did not wor- 



428 DISCOURSE TWENTIETH. 

ship Gods or a God, and the sense of the term is 
now modified. Believers in God and worshippers 
of God may be philosophers in almost every depart- 
ment of science. It is no disparagement to a Chris- 
tian philosopher as he may call himself, to doubt on 
any point of inquiry or experiment. No man now 
pretends to know every thing or to believe every 
thing. It is generally understood that it is not ne- 
cessary for a man to be an unbeliever in divine rev- 
elation, in order to become a good natural or ex- 
perimental philosopher. Doubt holds a middle 
place between unbelief and faith. Mind cannot 
remain stationary in absolute or entire unbelief. 
The effects of doubt differ from those of unbelief. 
It may prove a motive or prompter of the mind to 
action, instead of holding it in suspense as unbelief 
must. Absolute unbelief and impossibility are sy- 
nonymous in effect. The righteousness of God re- 
vealed in the gospel is not upon a level with natu- 
ral subjects or in the same predicament they are; 
it is not a proper subject for the same kind of doubt 
for the same kind of means cannot be used to detect 
error or confirm truth. Moral philosophy itself can- 
not be permitted in all cases to exercise its doubts 
upon the gospel revelation of the righteousness of 
God, for the very obvious reason that all the data 
of such a revelation are not given to the moral phi- 
losopher. He knows but in part ; he sees through 
a glass darkly. Nature exhibits facts to the natu- 
ralist. She exhibits portions of them to the senses, 
to form the basis of experiments and researches by 



THE PROGRESS OF FAITH. 429 

which we may discover what may remain con- 
cealed. The secrets of nature therefore may be said 
in one sense to be revealed from experiment to ex- 
periment, and the secrets of morals from observation 
to observation. There is in each case something 
in kind to begin with. But the believer begins in 
faith and progresses in faith. To the last, there are 
points in kind different from physics and morals 
and which no experiment nor past experience can 
reach. Has he lived a life-time in faith ? He can- 
not leave the world with the same faith only which 
has brought him to the verge of life. The scene 
before him is new and untried ; he now ventures 
all upon a promise, the truth of which no man can 
vouch for. If he ceases to believe in his last ex- 
piring moment, he dies in despair. So different is 
the life of a believer from that of a doubting philo- 
sopher, whose knowledge if not extracted from his 
doubts finds them as it were the prompters to new 
researches ! 

Herein is the righteousness of God revealed. The 
birth, the life, the death and the resurrection of the 
Messiah are recorded in the gospel. The Redeemer 
and Saviour is not to come ; he has come. In the 
law and the prophets he was foretold or prefigured ; 
now he is revealed from faith to faith. The pro- 
gress of faith is from his birth to his resurrection step 
by step. There is no break in the belief, no cause 
of doubt. One event prepares the way for another. 
The Jews may be regarded as theological unbeliev- 
ers in the gospel 3 not as doubters. Their minds 



430 DISCOURSE TWENTIETH. 

were not in a transition state. They do not now 
believe that the Messiah has come, but they believe 
that he will yet come. They do not live by faith 
as Christians do. They were at first placed under 
the law as a schoolmaster, and their unbelief keeps 
them under it as it regards practical purposes. Their 
consciences are bound or they feel under obligation 
to keep the ceremonial law, so far as circumstances 
permit. But the law is not of faith. The man 
that doeth them (the works) shall live in them, and 
not as the just do, by faith. A belief, in the Mes- 
siah as having come puts an end to sacrificial works ; 
unbelief in Ms having come imposes the continu- 
ance of sacrificial works. A Jew must work ac- 
cording to his law in order to live or to be a Jew. 
Without works he would be dead indeed ; he would 
not be religiously known among the nations. 

Though we reject the opinion of the author of 
the divine legation of Moses, namely, that the 
promises under the law of Moses were only tem- 
poral and national; yet it must be evident, that 
these kinds of promises were made unto the Jews 
upon the condition of their keeping the law and 
that they have been literally verified. Now the 
faith of the Jews in a Messiah or Christ to come 
must needs take on the modification of hope. It 
is so far as it remains or while it continues the sub- 
stance of the thing hoped for. They live not upon 
the hopes of the future. This distinction is impor- 
tant and is of general application. No man works 
for the pail, or to effect or alter what he believes to 



THE PROGRESS OF FAITH* 431 

be historically true. Salvation by grace through 
faith cannot be of works, if the faith be in the past. 
If a man believes in the merit of a sacrifice of- 
fered up for him nearly two thousand years ago ? 
how can he associate the merit of his own work in 
offering up a sacrifice for himself? The Jews hope 
and work, and work because they hope. They en- 
deavor to keep the law that the Saviour may come. 
But the just who believe the Saviour has come are 
rich in faith. 

Among believers it is well known there is a large 
body who not only believe the Scriptures, but be- 
lieve that the spirii of inspiration or infallibility con- 
tinues in the church or in its ministry. The mem- 
bers of this church do not deem it necessary to read 
the gospel which contains the revelation of the 
righteousness of God, but still they profess to believe 
a book they have either never read or do not deem 
it necessary they should read in order to believe it. 
This is a different state of the case from the other 
two, and has peculiarities to be found no where 
else. Men believe both the gospel and its ministers 
to be infallible. Now to balance faith between two 
such infallibles, cannot but seem to be a difficult 
task to any inexperienced mind. One or the other 
of the scales one should think would be apt to pre- 
ponderate ; and the presumption in the case would 
naturally be in favor of the living human infalli- 
bility over the infallibility of the dead letter. We 
have considered doubt as a middle or transition state 
of mind between faith and unbelief, and must not 



432 DISCOURSE TWENTIETH. 

such a state of mind sooner or later be found be- 
tween two equal authorities ? If there must be an 
infallible ministry to interpret an infallible gospel, 
probably a better plan could not be well devised to 
keep doubts out of the minds of the members of 
the church than to keep the infallible book out of 
tkeir sight. We have said that doubts hold a mid- 
dle place between faith and unbelief, but they must 
not be considered as stationary or as tending only 
one way. They may have a tendency either to 
faith or unbelief, and thus they may shift the 
ground of our faith or unbelief or modify them, 
though they can never end in entire or absolute 
unbelief on all sides. The remark for instance 
has been frequently made, that a believer in 
two infallibles — an infallible book and its infal- 
lible interpreters — when he ^begins to doubt the 
interpreters, is apt to end in unbelief of till reli- 
gion; while tliGse who begin with doubting the 
book generally stop in some form of religion or wor- 
ship. Doubts in the first case shaking the faith in 
the predominant object and meeting with less re- 
sistance from the weaker one, have nothing to ar- 
rest them ; and in the meantime if not checked by 
the living resistance, they will gain impel us from re- 
action. But doubts in the book will not be thus 
pushed to the extreme. But there is a fourth mode 
of doubt which bears upon the subject revealed, — 
the righteousness of God. A celebrated European 
author wrote a book upon the atonement, or rather 
against it, and he came to the conclusion that he 



THE PROGRESS OF FAITH. 433 

could not find the idea of atonement in the 
four gospels. Need there be a stronger evidence of 
the direction of his doubts? This kind of proof of 
the tendency of doubts is to be met with in other 
writers. To the minds of these authors the gospel 
reveals the love of God instead of the righteousness 
of God, and it reveals this love to their reason rather 
than their faith. One of the most eloquent of these 
writers! feels his mind shocked at the ideas of justice 
and satisfaction, as changing the relation of parental 
love under which the Scriptures represent the uni- 
versal Father ; and he considers that it makes the 
laws of God to resemble those of Draco which on 
account of their severity were said to be written in 
blood. The tendency here is to exclude all ideas 
of justice from the New Testament as a revelation, 
and to resolve it wholly into a revelation of love. St. 
John furnishes the first leading thought ; from him 
they take the substitute for justice in the term love. 
But though he be called the beloved disciple — the 
disciple whom Jesus loved — and though he uses 
the word love in all its derivations more frequently 
than any other writer, and as it were incorporates 
it into his composition ; yet we would be willing to 
rest the whole matter at issue upon his writings 
alone, leaving the testimony of St. Paul and his 
peculiar language out of view. Let us hear St. 
John. "And the blood of Jesus Christ his Son 
cleanseth us from all sin. My little children I write 
unto you that ye sin not; but if any man sin we 
37 



434 DISCOURSE TWENTIETH. 

have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the 
righteous." Why righteous?" " That he might 
be the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours 
only but for the sins of the whole world." Could 
Jesus Christ the loving or the lovely be the propi- 
tiation for sin ; or could his blood, under the char- 
aracter of love and not of righteousness, cleanse us 
from all sin? Or would the language,— if we con- 
fess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us 
our sins,— be equally appropriate? Does it not 
seem plain, that a law cannot be so abstracted as to 
resolve itself wholly into love or benevolence? 
When violated it must be satisfied in some way, or 
government of course must cease. Justice and love 
or mercy must not be confounded, nor be resolved 
into one and the same mode of action. When they 
are said to meet together and kiss each other, they 
are not amalgamated into one. " To declare I 
say," says St. Paul, " his righteousnes at this time, 
that God might be just and yet the justifier of him 
that believeth in Jesus;" Change the words. "To 
declare I say at this time his love that God might 
be love and the lover of him who is a lover of Je- 
sus." Is not the difference apparent, and is not all 
the antithesis destroyed ? The revelation of right- 
eousness irom faith to faith requires that no doubts 
should find place in our minds which lead to unbe- 
lief in any part of this revelation. Such doubts 
would be incompatible with the life of faith. We 
are not justified by love, for the righteousness of 
God is the object of our justifying faith, and it is 



THE PROGRESS OF FAITH. 435 

predicated on evidence or testimony. Love is not 
the first or immediate result from testimony, but 
confidence or belief. We read again and again the 
record or testimony that God hath given us of his 
Son, and of our setting our seal to this testimony or 
record by our faith in it. Christ died for the un- 
godly, died for his enemies, died the Just for the 
unjust. 

These cases show how the text may be departed 
from by different processes in the mind. Revela- 
tion may be confounded with creation, or ils ob- 
jects with those of nature. But the substances in 
nature are not presented or made known to the 
senses and through them to the mind, from faith to 
faith. The righteousness of Gocl is revealed as a 
truth, — as a truth of fact and a truth of doctrine or 
principle ; and as the latter it becomes a historical 
truth. He who knew no sin was made the right- 
eous sin-offering for us. Jesus Christ was of Gocl 
made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctiflcation 
and redemption. Jesus Christ the righteous given 
of God as a sacrifice or sin-offering, is evidently the 
righteousness of God revealed in the gospel. God 
gave his only begotten Son to be believed in with 
the heart unto righteousness; for it is so, that man 
believeth with the heart. 

Cincinnati, February, 1838, 



DISCOURSE TWENTY-FIRST. 

THE LAW OF LOVE. 



Let brotherly love continue. 

Hebrews } xiii. — 1. 

A government, within a government is a problem 
which politicians find it difficult to solve. When 
no advances are made towards its solution, the 
church and the State commonly are under one head. 
How indeed can there be two independent heads 
in the same body ? It is now supposed from the 
oldest known records of India or the Hindoos, that 
the priestly authority w T as at first above the regal. 
The struggle of Christian priests in Europe for su- 
premacy over Imperial and Kingty power, consti- 
tutes an important portion of history. Indeed, the 
struggle is not yet over. And in our own country 
it may be only suspended. We would be among 
the last to disturb the present happy truce. 

That Christianity was intended by its founder 
and head to exist in a social state or in a church 
form, appears from the New Testament. Did the 
Lord Jesus Christ intend that his Church should 
be placed in the same relation to the government 
of Rome as the Jewish church was then placed? 
That is, that it should have a sanhedrim or a hier- 
archy, which though without the power of life and 
death should be permitted to exercise a high religi- 
ous authority or become religious persecutors like 



^ H E LAW F 1 V £ . 43T 

the sanhedrim ? Were the Apostles and Ministers 
to become (so to speak) anew Christian sanhedrim? 
No affirmative answer to this question is to be found 
in the New Testament. The High Priests and el- 
ders do not complain of the Apostles as actual or in- 
tentional rivals for power. The matters in dispute 
between ihem, were Jesus and the resurrection or 
points of doctrine rather than government. The 
desires of the Apostles who should be greatest, were 
among themselves not in regard to other rivals. Now 
it is well known that the Jewish High Priesthood 
under the Grecian or Macedonian and Roman sove- 
reignties, was subject to the control or influence of 
politicians if not of bribery. Had St. Peter been a 
High-Priest or in the place of the High-Priest to 
the new Christian Church would not the Emperors 
have kept a watchful eye upon him? Might not 
he too have been threatened and bribes have been 
offered to him? Considering the fact that a tole- 
ration as liberal as that of the Romans, gives rise to 
frequent and strong jealousies and restraints, and 
that these were felt by the Jewish hierarchy and 
people as humiliating and degrading, may we not 
indulge in the belief that the wisdom of the author 
of our faith devised a plan to avoid such a condi- 
tion ? But if he did so, is the plan to be found up- 
on record ? Let us see. " This is my command- 
ment, that ye love one another as I have loved you. 
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay 
down his life for his friend. These things I com- 

27* 



438 DISCOURSE TWENTY-FIRST. 

mand you, that ye love one another. As the Fa- 
ther hath loved me, so have I loved you; continue 
ye in my love. By this shall all men know that 
ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. 
A new commandment give I unto you, that ye 
love one another as I have loved you. For this is 
the message ye have heard from the beginning, that 
we should love another. Hereby perceive we the 
love of God, because he laid down his life for us 
and we ought to lay down our life for the brethren. 
And this is his commandment, that we should love 
one another as he gave us commandment. Let bro- 
therly love continue." 

We assume that church government in common 
with others, is a means to accomplish an end and 
not an end itself. Therefore if Christians are gov- 
erned as well as they need be or ought to be, the end 
of church government is answered. Why then 
should any body have a divine right to destroy a 
government of love if it answer this end, to make 
way for another that can answer no better purpose? 
Government is needed to correct order, but to pre- 
vent disorder. Laws are not made to punish the 
righteous. Let it be supposed that the primitive 
church was governed by the law of love while un- 
der the dominion of Roman power, would it have 
been the same as a government of power within a 
government of pow T er? What cognizance could 
the Emperors have taken of this new species of go- 
vernment? In the Acts of the Apostles we have 
an account of (he doings of Herod? These were 



THE LAW OP LOVE. 439 

evidently sheer acts ef tyranny and persecution on 
the part of this tributary king. There is no intima- 
tion of any resistance to the government on the part 
of the church or its ministers. His object was to 
vex ; his means—he killed with the sword. It was 
a military not a civil process. Had it been a matter 
of power or prerogative between Herod and the 
Apostles 3 would not the Imperial power have inter- 
fered ? 

An exercise of conflicting power by the Apostles 
must have proved of all things the most disastrous ; 
it might have ruined the church as it did the syna- 
gogue. Even the allies of Rome were virtually 
conquered ; their show of power might be taken 
from them whenever it suited the policy of the 
mistress of nations. Was the Son of David rich ? 
No. He was poor; he had not where to lay his 
head. Had the King of Judah civil or political 
power? No. He took upon him the form of a ser- 
vant, and was with his disciples as one that serveth. 
A display of wealth and power might have defeat- 
ed all the testimony in favor of his Messiahship, by 
bringing him into immediate conflict with the 
Roman power. For upwards of three years 
during the personal ministry of our Lord, (he 
nucleus of the church existed. He had twelve 
select witnesses and many other disciples ; at cer- 
tain times and upon certain occasions many believ- 
ed on him. Had he then during this period no 
government? Yes; he had a government of love. 
Why was not the traitor Judas excommunicated ? 



440 DISCOURSE TWENTY -FIRST. 

Would not such an act have been a display of go- 
verning authority rather than of the humility of One 
whose judgment was taken away? Is it not appa- 
rent to an impartial mind on a review of the whole 
ground, that positive evidence of the exercise of the 
forms of legal or regal power in this new society, 
might have called forth an indictment against its 
head for exercising a government within a govern- 
ment? The whole of that part of the process be- 
fore Pilate which relates to the regal character and 
titles of the accused, is a very remarkable part of 
evangelical history. It clearly shows that the Cu- 
rator or judge was fully convinced that the prisoner 
was a legal heir to the throne of David, and that un- 
der that conviction he ordered the inscription to be 
written in three languages upon the cross. One 
reason why the Jews wished the title to be effaced 
was, they said, that it was only He that said it. 
When did he say that he was the King of the 
Jews? " Thou say est that I am a King." When 
Pilate put the question ; — " Shall I crucify your 
King?" The Jews replied ; — <c We have no King 
but Oeesar. If thou lett est this mango, thou art 
not Caesar's friend: whosoever maketh himself a 
king speaketh against Caesar." The time of these 
disclosures and declarations gives them great im- 
portance. It was a trial for life or death. Then 
Jesus witnessed a good confession before Pontius 
Pilate. Then the Jews denied the Holy One and 
the Just and desired a murderer to be granted unto 
them, making the memorable declaration; — We 



THE LAW OF LOVE. 441 

have no King but Csesar. What would have been 
the effect upon Pilate, if the Jews had acknowl- 
edged the genealogy of Jesus? But what had 
Apostles and churches to do with the precedents 
and maxims of their Master and Lord, after the day 
of Pentecost? The quotations made at large from 
the gospel and the epistle of St. John, show that 
in the matter of governing power their relation to 
Roman power or sovereignty was not the same as 
that of the Jewish church, and that their only safe- 
ty was in being governed by the law of love. 

The whole history of Roman toleration shows, 
that this government (like other despotic govern- 
ments) interposed its power at any time or under 
any circumstances, if it suspected any danger to the 
state. It was rather a permission or indulgence 
subject to recall at will, than a right secured by law. 
The less authority tolerated people manifested, the 
less was their dependence upon the state, for (he 
less they awakened its jealousy. The miraculous 
display of the divine displeasure in the death of An- 
anias and Sapphira, may perhaps be considered in 
the then infant state of the church to have been in- 
tended to avoid a church trial. When such trials 
commence they must take the legal form. Pru- 
dence must not interfere with the forms of human 
justice. But the justice of God may be immediate. 

Now the law of love or its influence over a select 
number of new converts, can and often does super- 
sede the necessity of the regular forms of discipline. 
When all obey, disciplinary forms are not needed. 



442 DISCOURSE T WE NT Y -FIRST. 

We repeat, that a display of church authority might 
have brought the new church under Imperial jeal- 
ousy. Those disciples had the precepts and the 
examples of their Master to guide them. " I have 
washed your feet; wash ye one another's feet." 
The nature of this brotherly love is identical with 
the charity described in the thirteenth chapter of 
the letter to the Corinthians. It has been well shown 
that the properties and operations of this charity re- 
late immediately to men rather than to God. Thus 
charity is kind, — to whom? Not to God but to men. 
Again it doth not behave itself unseemly, — to men. 
It is not easily provoked, — by men. It thinketh no 
evil, — of men. How were these lambs among 
wolves to be as wise as serpents and as harmless as 
doves, if they had at the very beginning displayed 
all the insignia of power and all its attributes accord- 
ing to the opinion of certain men respecting church 
polity, the first aspiration of which is — who shall 
be greatest? Ecclesiastical writers in searching for 
Apostolical precedents, seem to lose sight of the 
nearness of the destruction of Jerusalem to the time 
of the Apostles. All the precedents taken from the 
fathers, are subsequent to that event and are mostly 
Grecian. Few if any instances of native Jewis 
converts to Christianity, are quoted as authority from 
the early fathers. The Epistles to the churches are 
all supposed to have been written, while the temple 
was yet standing. In the life time of St. Paul, among 
the mixed churches composed of Jew and Gentile 
converts brotherly love was not continued accord- 



THE LAW OP LOVE. 



443 



ing to the standard, and the consequences began to 
be realized. In writing to the Hebrews only, he 
says, — " Let brotherly love continue." In all his 
other letters he has spared no pains to show, that 
all causes or excuses for its non- continuance were 
obviated by the perfect equality of privileges which 
the gospel gives both to Jews and Gentiles, that 
Christ had made of the twain one new man, so 
making peace. 

In process of time it should seem that Jewish con- 
verts became less frequent or less distinguished, for 
as we have said, we hear of scarcely any distin- 
guished name of that class among the (so called) fa- 
thers ; but fathers with Latin names begin to ap- 
pear. As brotherly love decreased the signs of 
hierarchical power increased, for brotherly love is 
the basis of equality. Can men unite and be kept 
united through any other medium save love or 
power ? Love attracts and power drives. Ambi- 
tion is too general and too genial to the human 
heart, to allow of any long interregnum after love 
ceases. The difficulty is not in the transition from 
love to power, but in a return from power to love. 
In anarchy every heart feels free to seek for mas- 
tery. When tyranny usurps government, the in- 
cumbent and his friends use laws to restrain rival 
ambition. But successful anarchists often begin as 
obscure and unknown men. 

But church power cannot long continue under 
any civil government, without gaining superiority 
over it or having some conflict with it, or creatine 



444 DISCOURSE TWENTY -FIRST. 

fears or jealousies. The union of church and state 
is predicated upon the tendency of church govern- 
ment to supremacy and political efforts to prevent 
it. Both parties consent to give and take. In our 
own country where the two powers are entirely se- 
parated by law, the constitutions and the laws gua- 
rantee liberty and rights of conscience to all, and 
we see no formal or professed resorts to the law of 
brotherly love between different denominations. 
Each one exhibits its own independent prerogatives 
and executes its own rules and judgments ; but the 
civil power limits this individual church sovereign- 
ty to spiritual matters, and pledges itself to secure 
personal liberty and property to those who may be 
spiritually bound. If the union of church and 
state were suddenly dissolved in a country where 
all the people belong to one church, peculiar and 
unforeseen changes might come to pass. We feel 
persuaded that this interesting subject is habitually 
connected with too much personal feeling among 
us in the Republic, to admit of a full and impartial 
discussion of it in all its bearings. Notwithstand- 
ing all our legal securities and all our voluntary 
professions of liberality, fears are daily expressed and 
published that church power may triumph over ci- 
vil power. But fewer instances of fear are mani- 
fested that civil power may prevail. And yet if 
the two powers be antagonist or may be made so, 
the danger cannot remain all on one side. A one- 
sided view is a sure proof of ignorance or error re- 
specting the nature and tendency of principles. 



THE LAW OF LOVE. 445 

But in the midst of these fears, what is the re- 
medy proposed ? The watch- word is, — beware of 
priest-craft. The civil government is to have no 
confidence in any religions denomination in the 
Union. Is such a state of feeling to the honor of 
religion ? Behold ! the consequonces. Each de- 
nomination to be jealous of others, and the govern- 
ment 'to be jealous of them all. Turn we then to 
the New Testament and the primitive church ; shall 
we there find a parallel condition ? We shall find 
the Roman government tolerating different religions 
while it had a legal religion of its own. What then 
did the Author of the Christian religion do when he 
introduced into this vast and despotic empire a new 
church, and how did he instruct his first ministers to 
act ? Did he wear the insignia of office and autho- 
rize his Apostles to wear them? Did he assume the 
titles of office and authorize his ministers to be call- 
ed by those titles ? The first robes of office which 
Jesus wore, were put upon him by his prosecutors. 
" And they platted a crown of thorns and put it up- 
on his head, and they clothed him with a purple 
robe and said, Hail ! King of the Jews and smote 
him with their hands." 

This submission of the Messiah to reproach and 
shame and the sufferings of crucifixion, is in unison 
w jth, — " Love one another as I have loved you. Let 
brotherly love continue." The commandment was 
new as a basis of a social system and as a means of 
casting out fear. There was nothing like it in any 
38 



446 DISCOURSE TWENTY-PlfiST, 

other religion in the Empire. Could the Emper- 
ors have made it a treasonable offence in the disci- 
ples of Jesus to obey this new commandment ? It 
is customary for teachers to consider brotherly love 
as a form of expressing a high degree of Christian 
or social friendship, rather than as answering in 
given cases the end of government or as a substi- 
tute for the formal operations of power. It is also 
said that the commandment is new only as it regards 
authority and motive. And the effects of perfect 
love are mostly referred evclusively to God, as though 
it casts out fear in regard to God only and not the 
fear of men also. Perfect love casteth out fear ; 
there is no fear in love because fear hath torment. 
" He that feareth is not made perfect in love." Is 
it not true that the fear of the church powers that be 
hath torment ? All indeed agree that the highest 
acts of obedience spring from love. 

Had our Lord spent the time which intervened 
between the calling of his disciples and his crucifix- 
ion in teaching them the art of commanding, he 
might perhaps have found them not inapt learners. 
Men improve fast under precepts and examples of 
sovereignty. But his lessons were of a different 
character and tendency. The Son of man came not 
to be ministered unto but to minister. Apprentices 
in the school of power though compelled to be me- 
nial, can soon compensate themselves for such hu- 
mility. But what compensation can be made for 
the labor of learning to minister unto others ? The 
remembrance of the honor done to a disciple by his 



THE LAW OF LOVE. 447 

master in washing his feet, may be soon effaced by 
the recollection of the obligation it has imposed up- 
on him to wash the feet of his fellow disciples. If 
all denominations were fully imbued with the be- 
lief, that Jesus, their common Master and Lord 
gave as a new commandment to his disciples bro- 
therly love, and that St. Paul enjoined its continu- 
ance because when fully obeyed, it would supersede 
discipline in so far as it would prevent offences by 
removing almost all occasions for them, and that 
therefore they should make no display of power and 
consider it as no criterion or standard of true reli- 
gion, but regard every instance of the necessity of 
discipline and teach others to regard it rather as 
proof of want of religion than as a test of a succes- 
sion to it, — would not Christianity bear a different 
aspect towards civil power from what it generally 
does? We now glory in the fact, that church 
power in this free country under its free govern- 
ments is a subject of political jealousy. Why jeal- 
ousy without cause is wrong, and it is wrong to give 
just cause of jealousy. The churches which give 
just causes for political jealousy, do an injury to re- 
ligion. The idea of a government within a gov- 
ernment should be kept steadily in view by church- 
men, and the methods by which in the greatest de- 
gree the consequences of this relation may be 
avoided. Let brotherly love be contemplated, as 
calculated to allay the prejudices and suspicions of 
the rulers of this world against church power and to 
wipe away the reproach of priest-craft, 



448 DISCOURSE TWENTY -FIRST. 

It will be arsrned we are aware that all the forms 
of government must be prepared, all the offices be 
organized, all the officers be chosen, and that the 
laws also must be enacted before they are needed. 
Be it so. It is true that offences against the law of 
brotherly love must come. The love of many will 
wax cold. Some will depart from the faith and 
some will leave their first love. But these facts 
seem not to us to refute our theory. The very of- 
fice-bearers in the church should be the conserva- 
tives of brotherly love. Theirs should be a gov- 
ernment of love, and while love prevails the ends 
of government are answered. Now the end of the 
commandment is charity, out of a pure heart and a 
good conscience and of faith unfeigned. When the 
members of a church are so far lost to brotherly 
love as to bite and devour one another, they have 
lost the true spirit of their profession. Strife for the 
mastery over such unloving and unlovely people 
should they be over-awed by power, would prove 
but a useless victoiy. 

We take it for granted as a position which needs 
no proof, that the Spirit of inspiration in constitut- 
ing a system of religion foresees consequences. 
This indeed distinguishes inspiration from inven- 
tion. New inventions must be tested by experi- 
ment. The most plausible theories are found of- 
ten to be erroneous in practice. With history itself 
in our hands, we cannot tell the precise consequences 
or results of a particular system as we cannot fore- 
see all the adventitious causes and circumstances. 



THE LAW OF LOVE* 449 

We do know to a certainty that a hierarchy claim- 
ing to be exclusively Christian, has triumphed over 
civil governments and that too by system ; and we 
know too that the system is still maintained as of 
divine right, and that when it can no longer reign 
paramo ant it unites with the state. The prescient 
founder of the Christian church foresaw these events. 
But if he said nothing and did nothing to prevent 
them, may it not be inferred that he willed that it 
should be so ? Much has been said about divine per- 
mission to sin. The maxim is common^ — God is not 
the author of sin but permits it. Let us not confound 
permission with negligence or want of diligence in 
civil magistrates. The Providence of God bears no 
resemblance to the coercion of absolute power. Jesus 
we say, did not permit his disciples to encourage 
others to call them Rabbi, Rabbi, that is he forbade 
them. He did not permit them to govern the church 
as the lords and kings of the gentiles, that is he for- 
bade them. He did not permit them to hate one 
another. He did not permit brotherly love to cease, 
for he commanded that it should continue. If the 
church had continued to be governed by the ex- 
amples and precepts of her head, every body must 
perceive that the deviations from them could not 
have been recorded. The Lord Jesus did not per- 
mit ministers to do what he forbade them to do. 
But he knew what would come to pass, if his au- 
thority were not regarded. The spirit of prophecy 

spake expressly of some, who in the last days would 

38* 



450 DISCOURSE TWENTY-FIRST. 

depart from the faith. They could not exalt them- 
selves unless they departed from the faith. He that 
keeps the faith must be humble. 

Most of the persecutions of the church while the 
Sanhedrim existed, were under their orders or ap- 
probation. The Romans seem to have regarded the 
disciples of Jesus for some time as a sect of Jews, 
rather than a separate church. Here we see the wis- 
dom of our Lord in directing and of the Apostles in 
obeying his directions, not to make any display of 
power but to let brotherly love continue. That they 
aimed thus to obey, may be inferred from the fact 
that they were not involved in the destruction of Je- 
rusalem ; for if they had given occasion to the Ro- 
mans to suspect them, their retreat to Mount Pella 
would not have saved them. The minor denomi- 
nations of Christians after the reformation made at- 
tempts to separate the church from the state ; and to 
them and their descendants chiefly this country is 
indebted for universal liberty of conscience. But cer- 
tain writers on this subject seem not to be fully aware 
of the consequences of the political jealousies, to 
which independent church government in a state 
may give rise. Indeed instances occur of a temeri- 
ty and recklessness of consequences, as though it 
were a virtue to set " powers that be " at defiance. 
Many good men in their zeal show little solicitude 
to stop at a point where they can check and control 
the impetus which may continue after the first cause 
subsides. Enthusiasm may be detected in these 
cases, but if we mistake not there is an inattention 



THE LAW OP LOVE. 451 

to or a misapprehension of the nature and relations 
of governments. Social actions in a state which are 
not authorised by law, are apt to be suspected if not 
feared. Though at first the novelty may attract at- 
tention yet the uncertainty of the issue may create 
anxiety. Executive authorities are to take care that 
the republic receive no detriment. Political prudence 
suggest that evils should be nipped in the bud. It is 
one among the unhappy consequences of bad sys- 
tems and of bad laws, that they cannot be checked 
immediately even by wise legislation. A decree of 
an Emperor could have crushed the infant church 
in a day. His suspicion would have been death. 
What a comment on brotherly love are these words 
of St. Paul writing from Rome ! " All the saints sa- 
lute you, chiefly they of Caesar's household." Cae- 
sar feared not those whom he took unto his house- 
hold. "Writers speak of ten (or of a number of) 
persecutions under the heathen Emperors or Ceesars. 
Did all who claimed to be successors of Apostles 
throughout these persecutions, obey the precept in 
the text ? Is it not true that brotherly love has no- 
thing in it to feed or to flatter the carnal mind? 
When did Bishops first appear in canonical robes ? 
Was it before or after Imperial jealousy began to be 
awakened? The persecutions of Nero are regarded 
by historians among his caprices as a tyrannical and 
cruel madman? 

An opinion is gaining strength in our mind that 
a new era of brotherly love having a more immedi- 
ate reference to church government, must arrive be- 



452 DISCOURSE TWENTY-FIRST. 

fore the Christian can make any great peaceful ad- 
vances. Among learned writers upon church po- 
lity we hear little about a brotherly-love government. 
And why should we ? Whoever heard of such a 
government ? Is it either Scriptural or possible ? 
Was it not the government of our Lord and prescrib- 
ed by him to his disciples ? And if all the learned 
and pious ministers of the gospel should devote them- 
selves to recommend it in theory and in practice, 
why might it not be possible? But perhaps this 
government might require a conversion to love as 
well as to faith. Brotherly love is more than per- 
sonal friendship. Church courts answer not their 
end when conducted merely in the spirit of civil 
courts. Justice may be awarded where love is but 
cold and perhaps more rigidly. Justice is a terrible 
attribute ; and if it must always appear in the church 
with its naked sword , it will become Christians 
to keeps the secrets of their own hearts locked up in 

their own bosoms. How would it have been possi- 
ble for an Inquisition to come into existence, if bro 
therly love had continued ? 

The infidel world is jealous of church rule. And 
there are persons so jealous of the churches they 
like best as to cause them to delay in joining them. 
And stiii all preach up brotherly love in every thing 
save church government. For a long time we could 
see no bearing of this precept upon the court of the 
Lord Bishop, supposing that, it concerned the private 
brethren only. Even now when we hear high- 
sounjing canonical titles, it is difficult to preserve 



THE LAW OF LOVE. 453 

in our minds their associations with brotherly love. 
Pastoral charge and Pastor of the church are it is 
true plain and easy names, but the tone and man- 
ner in which they are sometimes repeated is little 
calculated to excite ideas of reciprocal affection. St. 
Peter would have brethren to submit one to ano- 
ther, to love as brethren and above all to be clothed 
with humility. 

Nothing now remains to be said in praise of bro- 
therly love as a personal virtue. Its eulogy has 
been exhausted by poets and orators. Churches are 
well supplied with versification set to music to be 
sung in its commendation. But the suspicions of 
the powers of the world and of those who would be 
in power against religious or church fraternities, are 
not allayed. Many of the most ardent friends of 
liberty and equality have little or no confidence in 
church power. "Is he a churchman? Then he is 
fond of power." Could this reproach have come 
without some cause ? Could it have been perpe- 
tuated as a mere slander in the very face of the sure 
and certain marks of discipleship ? " By this shall 
all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have 
love one to another." In states, private opinions 
generate no public influence. If opinion in any 
public social body is not sufficient to change a law 
or usage, it cannot surely be trusted by others. But 
sleeping laws are not dead. Mny they not but seem 
to sleep ? Politicians are trained to take nothing 
upon trust, to judge nothing by appearances. When 
a class of teachers shall have arisen profoundly 



454 DISCOURSE TWENTY-FIRST. 

skilled in the science and art of government, and 
well acquainted with the weak and strong sides of 
politicians, and yet fully imbued with the spirit of 
brotherly love as a governing spirit, and shall have 
converted whole churches to their principles and 
feelings, then will the jealousy of politicians begin 
to cease, and will continue to diminish as long as 
the corrective continues to operate. Can any other 
means be pointed out, by which confidence can be 
restored and continued unto the church? But what 
can brotherly love do with the wild beast of vice? 
There are cases of depravity which religion can nei- 
ther control nor punish, and the attempt might en- 
danger its own purity. A determination to persevere 
in the use of force must end in testing power, and 
what but power can then decide. 

In every lesson of instruction given by our Lord 
to the ministers of his gospel, there is internal evi- 
dence of truth. In the whole course of that teach- 
ing which instructed a church how to prevent the 
gates of hell from prevailing against it, not a, life 
was sacrificed, not a character traduced and not an 
artifice employed to deceive. That so promiscu- 
ous a body of men as those who composed the first 
churches — not one of whom could have been born 
and educated in the community or had any histo- 
rical examples — should have passed through a pro- 
voking, insulting, and cruel persecution without reta- 
liation, though their persecutors were not supreme 
in power, is an evidence how wisely and how well 
they were iastructed. Such wisdom was fromabove. 



THE LAW OF LOVE. 455 

It was first pure, then peaceable, gentle and easy to 
be entreated. The fruits of righteousness were sown 
in peace of them that make peace. But our churches 
are wisely and well governed. We mean not to pass 
an opinion upon any church government where 
credit is claimed for good intentions. We readily 
accord it. Errors in theory may accidentally and 
indirectly increase the sincerity of good men as well 
as their zeal. If, says the proverb, the instrument 
be blunt, more strength must be put forth. So if a 
theory be faulty and the faults are not. perceived, 
new and greater efforts must be used to correct con- 
sequences. The aim of all is to secure the ends of 
government ; and assuming a theory to be correct, 
great efforts are made to ensure success, and as con- 
science attests sincerity in ignorance or error, the 
testimony may be urged in proof of truth. How, it 
may be and often is asked, can so sincere and good 
a man be wrong ? But no suspicion being enter- 
tained of the bluntness of the tool. or the error in 
theory, more practical efforts may be put forth by 
the sincere. If the Apostles had killed one person 
or caused one to be killed for Christ's sake (they 
had no lack of provocation,) if they had indulged 
in a spirit of revenge, they would have forfeited 
confidence as the ministers of him who came not 
to destroy men's lives but to save them. Must not 
all ministers of the church of Christ seek to conform 
to the primitive standard ? Behold ! the fact, — that 
church power has been exerted to the utmost to ac- 
complish its purposes without brotherly love and 



456 DISCOURSE TWENTY -FIR ST. 

with sincere confidence in its efficacy. But the at- 
tempts have not only often failed ; they have pro- 
duced suspicion and even odium. 

The advocates of the theory which places the 
earth in the centre instead of the sun, to account 
for many appearances filled the heavens with epicy- 
cles, — a most complex plan. A king fond of astro- 
nomical studies, is reported to have said ; — Had I 
been present when the Almighty created the uni- 
verse (upon this supposed system) I could have sug- 
gested some good advice. So no doubt, certain 
sceptics have thought if not said in regard to church 
government. But neither the king nor the sceptic 
knowing the true systems, would have any advice 
to suggest. Church government has been so modi- 
fied by wheels within wheels, as to become as com- 
plex as Ptolemy's system of epicycles. It is not the 
church but this sun of righteousness which is the 
centre of the Scriptural system. Is not brotherly love 
in the church like the centripetal force or the attrac- 
tion of affinity, by which members ever towards each 
other move ? 

This is the bond of perfectness, 

Thy spotless charity 5 
Oh, let us still we pray possess, 

The mind that was in thee ! 

But not only in the time of persecution is love the 
uniting and sustaining power. It is necessary also 
in prosperity. In worldly prosperity, we feel a 
thousand attractions which tend to divert our atten- 
tions from our duty to our brethren. 
Cincinnati, March, 183S. 



DISCOURSE TWENTY-SECOND, 

THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION. 



But when the fulness of time Was come, God sent forth his Son 
made of a woman., made under the law, to redeem them that were 
tmdsr the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And 
hecause ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into 
3 r our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a 
servant, but a son 5 and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. 

Galatians iv. 4—7. 

The question naturally arises in an inquiring 
mind, why did not the Saviour appear immediately 
after sin entered into the world and death by sin ? 
A question of this kind seems to be presupposed by 
the text, — when the fulness of the time was come." 
There are times when more advantages can be 
brought into co-operation and more and greater ef- 
fects be produced, than at other times— secondary 
causes being admitted. Nations have times of in- 
crease, of maturity and of decline. If the Saviour 
had been sent forth into the world immediately af- 
ter the fall, there would have been no time for a 
promise of a coming Saviour to have been an ob- 
ject of faith and hope. The fact would have been 
regarded as an object of history, just as the fall of 
man is regarded as an object of history. But until 
the fulness of the time did come, the promise of a 
Saviour to come was to be believed and the fulfil- 
ment of it hoped for. That time, that fulness of 
the time therefore, became a centre point as it were 
in which faith and hope in a promise and faith in 
its fulfilment met. Faith in the history or the truth 
39 



4t58 DISCOURSE T W EATY-SECOHB. 

of the history is fully supported by evidences of 
facts. But these kind of evidences must be want- 
ing when the object of faith is historical from the 
beginning or abstractly historical. Abraham and 
David believed and hoped, that when the fulness of 
the time should come God would send forth his 
Son. When that time was come, Simeon and 
Anna believed that they saw the Lord's Christ. 
And his disciples were fully confirmed in their be- 
lief by the resurrection. The greatest diversity of 
evidence is thus furnished, and opportunities to de- 
tect error or fraud or deception if any there be. In 
the prophecies of the coming Messiah, there was 
a variety of circumstances combined into a whole 
to be fulfilled. One prophet foretold the place 
where he should be born. Another foretold the 
time, and others the manner and the incidents of 
his life. So also of his death and resurrection. Now 
all these events cannot be combined naturally or 
artificially into a whole at any time or at one time, 
as well as at another. And a peculiar time is most 
convenient for their combination in the order of 
Providence. The Messiah was made under the 
law and was made of a woman. This could not 
have been done at one time as well as at any other 
time. There were long intervals of time, when the 
law could not be carried into operation in all its re- 
quirements, especially those which related to the 
country or the places ; as for example the time of 
the Babylonish captivity. Hence the great anxiety 
of the friends of the law to secure their national in- 



THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION. 459 

dependence and for the return of the people from 
captivity. In the various changes of the house of 
David, in order to fulfil the prophecies it was neces- 
sary that a time should come when there should be 
a female heiress. Mary the mother of Jesus was 
descended from Solomon, and she was espoused to 
Joseph as the next nearest relative in the lateral 
branch of the family. The birth-right and title of 
Jesus as the son of David according to the flesh, 
were through his mother Mary in default of a male 
heir. If therefore she had had a brother the case 
would have been altered. Was this the only in- 
stance in the history of the descendants of David, 
in which there was only an heiress ? The coming 
of the Messiah was promised at the time of the se- 
cond temple. This temple was built after the re- 
turn from the captivily, and it was destroyed by the 
Romans about seventy years after the birth of 
Christ. The full time was therefore come for the 
Lord to come into the second temple and thus make 
the glory of that house greater than that of the for- 
mer. But the time was passed after the temple was 
destroyed. There has not been another temple 
built at Jerusalem by the Jewish people since. A 
Mahommedan Mosque occupies the eminence on 
which the temple stood. 

The time of the Roman Empire under Augus- 
tus Ceesar, the first Imperator or Emperor, who 
succeeded to his uncle Julius the perpetual dictator 
and put an end to the civil wars, was a time more 
favorable to religious toleration and intercommuni- 



460 DISCOURSE TWENTY -SECOND. 

cation among the nations which yielded to or feared 
the power of Rome, than any other known period. 
The West of Asia, the North of Africa, the South 
and East of Europe had submitted to Rome. Judea 
was reduced to a Roman province. This was also 
a time of learning or a learned age. Civilization 
was never so generally extended over the same 
countries. Arts and letters may have been carried 
to a higher degree of excellence in certain places ; 
but the Augustinian age is the learned age of the 
Roman Empire. Roman laws and Roman legions 
protected Roman subjects. The Jews and their re- 
ligion were generally protected and tolerated. It 
was a time too when language favored intercourse. 
The Greek language from the days of Alexander 
the Great, became common in the countries govern- 
ed by his successors and conquered by the Romans 
and in the city of Rome itself. It became the lan- 
guage of the New Testament. Empire, learning, 
science, arts and civilization to a considerable ex- 
tent prevailed over the countries around the Medi- 
terranean and Egean seas and south shore of the 
Black Sea, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of 
Judea. 

The law of Moses was tolerated among the Jews 
and observed generally with much zeal. The Priests, 
the Rulers and the People earnestly expected the 
appearance of the long-looked for Messiah. It was 
well understood that he was to be of the house and 
lineage of David, that he was to be born in Beth- 
lehem the property of Jesse of the tribe of Judah, 



THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION. 461 

tliat the time foretold by Daniel was near and that 
he would appear in the second temple. 

Jesus Christ Was born, made or educated under 
the law. Nobody doubted his legal birth or reli- 
gion. He observed and fulfilled the law. He came 
not to destroy the law but to fulfil it. The offerings 
prescribed at the birth of the first-born were offered. 
He was dedicated or consecrated in the temple, he 
kept the passover and al tended the synagogues. In 
genealogical blood he was pure, — a Prince of the 
tribe of Judah and of the ancient line of kings, that 
he might redeem them that were under the law. 

The law including its sacrifices and all its cere- 
monies, it was contended by the doctors and is still 
Contended by them, is of eternal obligation. Be- 
hold ! the great point of controversy. The gospel 
maintains that Christ is the end of the law for righ- 
teousness to every one that believeth. Now both 
pputies agreed that the Gentiles were not under the 
law or that it was not given by Moses to them. 
They were not admitted as proselytes unless they 
submitted to circumcision. According to the doc- 
tors of the law, the whole of the sacrificial and rit- 
ual law of Moses was to be perpetuated in the king- 
dom or church of the Messiah, and all the Gentile 
believers of it were to be bound to become observ- 
ers of it ; — that is, all the Gentiles in order to be- 
come subjects of the kingdom of the Messiah must 
become Jews. St. Paul on the contrary contended 
that Christ was made under the law and born and 
39* 



462 DISCOURSE TWENTY-SECOND. 

educated a Jew, that he might redeem them who 
would otherwise continue bound to observe the 
laWj^that is, the gospel converts Jews into Chris- 
tians or sacrificers into believers instead of convert- 
ing Gentiles into Jews. Those therefore who ac- 
cept the merits of Christ's sacrifice by faith, need 
not offer sin-offerings to atone for their own sins. 
Both opinions agree in the conclusion, that distinc- 
tions between Jews and Gentiles must be lost in 
the new kingdom. But for the honor of the law, the 
Jewish teachers contended that it must be main- 
tained in all its forms, — -overlooking the honor of 
the Son of God. In truth however the law loses 
nothing of its honor, if those who are freed from it 
are redeemed from it or its curses. How does the 
honor of the law suffer by Jesus Christ being the 
end of it for righteousness to every one that believ- 
eth ? Is not this the highest honor that can be con- 
ferred upon it ? The Jewish people must have been 
delivered from the yoke of bondage or the Gentiles 
must have been brought under it, in order to be- 
come equal as members of Christ's kingdom. The 
plan therefore of redeeming those who were under 
the law, places Jews and Gentiles upon a footing 
of equality as free believers. Let the question be 
put : — What right had the Messiah to exonerate 
those Jews who believe in him from sacrificing or 
giving the offerings required by the law ? The an 
swer is easy and ready : — he has redeemed them, 
they are his own. The law has no longer any de- 
mands upon them for sin-offerings. The merit of 



THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION. 463 

his one sacrifice for sin is complete. It is not the 
number and the frequency of the sacrifices, but the 
intrinsic or actual value of the one-sacrifice of 
Christ himself, offered by himself in the fulness of 
the time. The merit of atonement is not in the 
quantity of the blood, but in its quality. Might we 
not seem to hear the Saviour say : — I have magni- 
fied the law of sacrifices and made it honorable ; 
now do you magnify my sacrifice by believing in 
it, by trusting in its merits alone for your salvation. 
Why will you still continue to observe the law of 
typical sacrifices ? Do you suppose that my sacri- 
ficial blood cannot cleanse from all sin ? — The law 
of sacrifices as a dispensation never was intended to 
be perpetual, but like a school-master designed for 
a state of non-age to bring Jews unto Christ. " Now 
this I say, that the child though an heir differs in 
nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all, but 
is under tutors and governors until the time ap- 
pointed.' 7 To retain the sacrifices in the church 
under the gospel dispensation then, would be like 
retaining school-masters for men who have entered 
upon their estates. 

As believers in Christ we receive the adoption of 
sons, and therefore God sends forth the Spirit of his 
Son into our hearts crying Abba, Father. If the 
Messiah had been a Gentile and so not made under 
the law, he could not have redeemed the Jews from 
their legal obligations. They must have remained 
under the privation of the inheritance as sons. If he 
had not been made of a woman he could not have 



464 DISCOURSE TWEJfTY-SECOJfD, 

redeemed any body. The Scriptures say ; — Sacrl- 
rices and offerings- and burnt-offerings thou would'st 
not, nor hast thou had pleasure in them ;— and they 
also say ; — A body hast thou prepared for me. Then 
said I, Lo ! I come to do thy will oh, God ! He took 
not hold on angels or angelic nature, but he took 
hold on the seed of Abraham. He was made lower 
than the angels, otherwise he could not have suffer- 
ed a sacrificial death or tasted death for every man. 
Christ hash redeemed us from the curse of the law, 
being made a curse for us. Now in the controversy 
respecting the effects of redemption upon the moral 
obligation of the redeemed, is it not worthy of no- 
tice that redemption from the curse of a broken law 
affects the breakers and not the law which is broken ? 
The redeeming of the Jews from under the law was 
in effect to change their citizenship, or to prepare 
the way for a transfer of their allegiance so soon as 
they should become believers in Christ. And so 
far it answers to a political redemption. Should 
the High Priest have demanded of his country- 
men; — Why do you not bring the legal sacrifices 
to ihe altar?— might they not have answered — We 
are no longer subjects of the sacrificial law but we 
have become the subjects of the Lord Jesus Christ 
by believing in him. But if he had asked a Jew; 
— Why do you commit idolatry? — could the Jew 
have answered? — I am no longer a Jew but a be- 
liever and a Christian ; Christ hath repealed the 
law against idolatry, and there being no law there 
is no transgression. What would the High Priest 



THE SflEIT OF ADOPTION. 465 

.liave said in reply (o this? Wfeat does common 
sense say in reply to it ? Did Ghrist come to repeal 
the law against idolatry ? Is the making and the 
worshipping of idols no longer a sin % 

For a Gentile to become a lew or a convert to 
the Jewish religion, the law required that he should 
be circumcised. u I testify again to every man 
that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the 
whole law." This law like other laws makes no 
exceptions but exacts universal obedience to all its 
enactments. Christ does not make those Gentiles 
free from the yoke of bondage who have voluntarily 
come under it. Those therefore who were circum- 
cised after they had believed in Christ, St. Paul 
says were cut off from grace. There was a volun- 
tary separation from the gracious government of 
Christ. The idea is, that we cannot occupy a mid- 
dle ground, — one while for the law and another for 
faith, sometimes Moses and sometimes Christ. Jews 
who had never committed idolatry were not cursed 
as idolators, and if they became Christians and kept 
themselves from idols they would still remain ex- 
empt from the curse. But idolatry cannot cease to 
be a sin by reason of any faith in Christ or any act 
of grace. A professed believer who worships and 
serves idols, is not held guiltless. To suppose and 
believe that redemption from the curse of the law 
means to remove the obligations to obey moral law, 
would be in effect to reverse the very end of re- 
demption which is to redeem us from ail iniquity. 
" Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us 



466 DISCOURSE TWENTY-SECON'D. 

from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar 
people zealous of good works." Redeem? How? 
What does that mean ? Not surely to abolish all 
law against iniquity, so that what was iniquity or 
moral evil shall be iniquity or moral evil no longer. 
For example, — does it mean, not that a man who 
was a thief shoald be made to be a thief no more, 
but that theft should cease to be unlawful because 
the law is repealed ? Now if one man takes the 
property of another, the loss to him whose property 
is taken is the same with or without law. But if 
the law against theft is in force, the thief is obnox- 
ious to its penalty. But when men are redeemed 
from offering sin-offerings by one offering of more 
value than all others together, the state of the case 
is very different. Men leave off doing an action by 
way of remedy or relief, because another and a bet- 
ter remedy is provided for him by a friend. A sin- 
offering or an atonement is not in its nature an act 
of moral obedience, but supposes that moral offence 
has been committed and that justice demands the 
penalty of the law and that the conscience responds 
to it. No man can feel willing to make an atone- 
ment unless he be conscious of guilt. The believer 
who is justified by faith believes in the atoning prin- 
ciple and believes that the atonement for his sins 
has been made fully and perfectly, and therefore he 
needs do nothing himself to add to its merits. Sin- 
offerings cease to be made after justifying faith, as 
the taking of medicine is dispensed with when the 
disease is cured. Should we say the lav/ of medi- 



THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION. 467 

cine is repealed or that the law of disease is repeal- 
ed? The maxim of the Saviour is, — "Behold! 
thou art made whole, sin no more lest a worse tiling 
come upon thee." 

Well, the soul is fully and freely pardoned by 
grace through faith; the sonship is acknowledged 
by the sending forth into the heart the Spirit of 
Adoption crying Abba, Father; and sin-offerings 
cease and give place to songs in praise of redeem- 
ing love. Let us examine now how the moral 
commandments are affected. Must it not be appa- 
rent that they are not and need not be affected at 
all, but may remain just as they were not being in 
the way to prevent any good? If the sacrificial law 
had impeached any Jew for neglecting to bring the 
offering to the priest before the altar and his moral 
character had stood fair, his faith would have been 
a sufficient apology. The question seems to have 
been overlooked, though it bears some analogy to 
our modern question of expatriation. Must not a 
Jew be always a Jew? Not so. He may become 
a Christian by faith. And a Gentile need not be- 
come a Jew in order to believe in Jesus, The prin- 
ciple of redemption intervenes, meeting aud obvi- 
ating all difficulties. "To redeem them that are un- 
der the law," saith the Scripture. The redeemed 
are under the authority of the Redeemer. " Ye are 
not your own, ye are bought with a price." Ye 
did not redeem yourselves. What was the inten- 
tion of the Redeemer? He intended, that all be- 
lieving Jews might receive the adoption of sons 



46S ; DISCOURSE TIENTT-SECOH& 

and be no longer like minors under tutors and gov- 
ernors. "Wherefore thou art no more a servant but 
a son, anil if a soa the® aa heir of God through 
Christ." Menoe the contrast ;— " Ye are not under 
the law but under glmmJ? To^be imder the law of 
sacrifi ces is- to he a servant. Ml the believing of 
converted Gentiles were linger gpace, were adopted 
so&sv Moses the mediator through whom the law 
was- given, was- brat a servant; he eouM not raise- 
those for whom he riMiwtered. Grace and truth? 
came- by .Pes-us Christ. When a man is condemn- 
ed to'deatli as- a penalty of a broken law, — "The- 
soul that shim etlv, it shall die" — he eancot purchase 
his own pardon, We say that grace is free or free 
grace, but the words in regard to the pardoned are 
synonymous; Those who can redeem themselves 
from the curse op penalty of the law. make void the 
law. 

There are obviously two meanings of the word' 
redcmptim- as k is used in Scripture. In regard to 
the moral law, it means the meriting of pardon for 
past transgressions of that law. In regard to the law 
of types and shadows which has intrinsic moral 
qualities, it means- the fulfilling and superseding 
or repealing of it and all its sacrifices and ceremo- 
nies — that faith in Christ may have no object of a 
sacrificial form or name to divide it, and so it may 
be concentrated upon the sacrifice of Christ alone. 
The typical washings of the law having no moral 
influence or effect when the renewing influence of 
the Holy Spirit typified by them was shed forth 



TJIE SPIRIT 0.F ADOPTION. 469 

abundantly, were no longer of any use. If a sign 
stand for a letter or word in language, it cannot 
by any rule or reason be made to exclude the 
letter or word, or to be written in combination 
with it. The claim or right is in the thing signi- 
fied. Christ was signified by the types and not 
the types by him. This is made plain by the 
following ; — u For the law having a shadow of 
good things to come, and not the very image of the 
things, can never with those sacrifices which they 
offered year by year continually, make the comers 
thereunto perfect ; for then would they not have 
ceased to be offered? Because that the worship- 
pers once purged should have had no more consci- 
ence of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a re- 
membrance again made of sins every year. He ta- 
keth away the first that he may establish the se- 
cond," that is, " the offering of the body of Jesus 
once for all." The whole passage is a logical de- 
monstration of the doctrine, that the shadowy law 
is abolished by the presence of the substance or bo- 
dy shadowed. The sacrificing of animals is not the 
very image of the good things to come, not the fac 
simile of the Messiah bleeding, dying on the cross, 
and rising: asrain from the dead. We hear no more 
in the gospel about binding the sacrifices with cords 
to the horns of the altar ; but, we hear — " God for- 
bid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord 
Jesus Christ ; not by works but by grace." 

In regard to sin (properly so called) or transgrcs- 
40 



470 DISCOURSE TWENTY-SECOND. 

sion of moral principles, no distinctions are made 
between Jew and Gentile. All have sinned and 
come short of the glory of God, and all are and must 
be justified freely by his grace through the redemp- 
tion that is in Jesus Christ. But as has been shown 
the ceremonial and sacrificial law of Mount Sinai 
hitherto binding on the Jews alone, must under the 
gospel have been binding upon both Jews and Gen- 
tiles or upon neither, or they could not have been uni- 
ted in one church or worshipping community. Which 
then was most advantageous for both parties, — to 
have subjected them both to this law of sacrifices or 
to have freed them both from if? St. Peter met 
the question. He says that this part of the law of 
Moses is a yoke of bondage which neither they nor 
their fathers were able to bear; — u why then tempt 
ye God to impose it upon the Gentiles." Consid- 
ering then the sacrificial law in the only two lights 
or views in which it can be considered, as a means 
or as an end, — what is the result? If as an end, 
the question is settled ; it must remain. But if as 
a means, then it may cease with the accomplish- 
ment of the end. So when scaffolding is a means, 
when the building is completed it is removed. The 
analogy is universal. The mind of the pupil and 
not the school-master is the end of education. The 
work to be done is the end and the tool the means. 
The first and great principle comprehended in the 
moral law, — Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 
with all thy heart, &c. — is an end and not a means. 
The distinction between means and ends is well 



the spirit op adoption. 471 

expressed in the words; — ."receiving the end of 
your faith, even the salvation of your souls. " Christ 
has not redeemed us, cannot redeem us from the ob- 
ligation to love God with all oar heart, &c. But 
the end of his death is, that he may redeem us from 
the guilt and punishment of not having so loved 
Mm. This first and greatest command and the sa- 
crificial death of Christ, stand in no relation to each 
other of shadow and substance. Redemption in- 
deed lays under renewed obligation to love God and 
procures for us grace to enable us to obey this law, 
instead of setting it aside. 

We press the consideration of this subject upon 
the minds of those who are not clear, that redemp- 
tion does not and cannot weaken or destroy the ob- 
ligations of the moral law or any moral principle 
whether written or unwritten. What does a believ- 
ing Gentile do ? He does not become circumcised 
and resort to sacrifices and burnt offerings and offer- 
ings for sin ; or if the believer be a Jew he ceases to 
offer them and to trust in them though they remain 
in the letter of the law. But for what purposes 
were those sacrifices ? Only as types or shadows 
of redemption. They never had any merit in them- 
selves. To leave off sacrificing then, involves no 
moral privation to ourselves or injury to others. 
While the law was in force disobedience to it re- 
ferred immediately to the authority of God. Be- 
fore this fulness of the time, faith was in the Mes- 
siah to come that is in a promise, and of course 
took on the form and action of hope, — hope 



472 DISCOURSE TWENTY-SECOND. 

that he would come* or that the promiser would 
fulfil it. The observance of the instituted types of 
good things promised, answers to an expression of 
that hope. It is like a language of signs. David 
believed in the merits of a Saviour to come, and 
continued to sacrifice as expressive of his hope. 
Paul when believing in the same Saviour as hav- 
ing come, left oi? sacrificing. But -mark the differ- 
ence though they were both believers. The latter 
could not, like the former, hope that the Saviour 
would come, his very faith being in the fact that he 
had come. Do not all these arguments plainly 
show why the legal sacrifices should cease after 
Christ came and made the great atonement ? Be- 
fore that time they signified hope ; and after that 
time hope that he would come, implied unbelief or 
doubt that he had come. Had David been asked, — 
Why do you sacrifice? Would he not have an- 
swered, — Because I believe the Messiah will come? 
But had St. Paul been asked, — Why do you not 
continue to sacrifice? Would he not have answer- 
ed, — Because I believe that the Messiah has come, 
I believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Lord's 
Christ ? And the same reasons continue to the pre- 
sent day. Those Jews now who do not believe 
that the Saviour has come, believe that he will 
come. Those Jewish believers who were justified 
by faith and not in their own estimation by the me- 
rits of their own sacrificial works, received the adop- 
tion of sons and were treated as sons, not as servants. 
God sent forth the spirit of his Son into their hearts 



THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION. 473 

crying' Abba, Father, — not master, — that Spirit 
which Isaiah saith dwelt with the child before he 
knew or was able to say Ab and Im or Pa and Ma. 
The Spirit of his Son, the Spirit of Adoption, and 
the Spirit of Truth seem to mean the same Spirit. 
Hence if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he 
is none of his, the Spirit of adoption bears not wit- 
ness with his spirit that he is a child of God. 

Bat how are we to understand the mode of this 
spiritual operation 1 Does it produce a feeling or 
a sentiment, or an opinion or an idea? The 
words seem to favor tie former. " God hath sent 
form the spirit of his Son into you:; hearts." It is 
however not to be overlooked that the language of 
the ancients in regard to the moral and intellectual 
faculties and their operations, was more general or 
less discriminative than it is at present ; so that we 
cannot now distinctly classify the meaning of their 
terms or tell when they meant feeling and when 
thought or when both. The centre of the pleasura- 
ble and the painful feelings is in or near the physi- 
cal organ called the heart. This is the place to 
which we all naturally point or allude when we at- 
tempt to describe our feelings. Spirit was com- 
monly opposed to matter and the heart to the exter- 
nal parts of the body; but the thinking faculty is al- 
so inward. 

Now it is a fact, that we may have thoughts or 
ideas in our minds distinct and different from the 
feelings of our hearts ; and that we may have feel- 
40'* 



474 DISCOURSE TWENTY-SECOND. 

ings in our hearts which have not or do not seem to 
have any agreement with our thoughts. These facts 
may have given rise to discussions about religious 
feelings and opinions, or experimental and theoreti- 
cal religion. The Spirit of inspiration spoke not in 
an unknown tongue to those it first addressed, but 
in a language they best understood. The progress 
of natural discovery and of improvements in lan- 
guage were not anticipated, for the language would 
have remained unintelligible until this advanced 
state of science. A little reflection cannot but lead 
us to perceive that there is some connection be- 
tween our thoughts and feelings, though we com- 
prehend not how they are connected. It would 
indeed sound strange to hear of a loving brain and 
a hating brain, but should it ever be demonstrated 
that the brain or organ of thought does feel love and 
hatred it would be difficult to introduce these new 
terms into common use. There is a zealous class 
of teachers who maintain that the Spirit of adop- 
tion or witness of the Spirit or assurance, is sen- 
tient or a feeling of the heart and in the heart 
in opposition to the thoughts or ideas of the mind ; 
and they sustain their position by arguing the fact, 
that this is a spirit of love, and that the love of God 
is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost 
which is given unto us. There can be no doubt 
that the Holy Spirit according to the Scripture, is 
the Spirit of Adoption which bears witness with our 
spirits that we are the children of God. But the 
qupstion still remains, is the mode of this operation 



THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION. 475 

wholly sentient or confined to the heart? On the 
other side, a more numerous body of teachers deny 
the sentient witness or the feeling of the witness of the 
spirit. They contend the feelings of the heart are 
not to be relied upon as evidence of religion, and 
that Christians have really no such witness that 
they are the children of God. The common opin- 
ion is, that these parties cannot be both right. 

They who favor feeling or experience are apt to 
be positive. They say that they know their own 
feelings, that the Spirit of Adoption constrains them 
to cry Abba, Father, and that the love of Christ 
constrains them to obey. But the moralists regard 
this as enthusiasm or delusion. And the experi- 
mentalists charge them in turn with formality and 
head religion, and mere opinions. Now is it not 
possible, that both the parties in this controversy 
may be partly right? Must not the final proof in 
this case depend upon the knowledge of the proper- 
ties or attributes of the brain or thinking faculty. 
Those who may deny that the organ of thought 
cannot feel either love or hatred, or emotions of joy 
or sorrow, will not surely deny that this organ can 
and does think of these objects. Compelled then 
as they must be, to admit that thoughts of love and 
hatred and of joy and sorrow, and also of faith and 
doubts and hopes and fears are in the mind ; must 
they not have recourse to nice distinctions to sus- 
tain the position that the brain can have no religious 
feeling? The thoughts of love are in the living 
active mind. Idea? of the pauses and consequences 



476 DISCOURSE TWENTY -SECOND, 

of it may be there. Are then all the feelings or 
sensations of it confined exclusively to the heart? 
We may affirm that the heart does not think, but 
have we equal evidence that the mind cr organ of 
thought does not feel? A natural if not constant 
expression of love is in the eye, which is nearly 
connected with the brain by the optic nerve. 
In disordered or morbid states of the feelings, 
a corresponding state of the brain or of the mind 
is commonly obvious, — as for example in intox- 
ication from alcohol. May we not therefore say 
without using technical words, that when the brain 
thinks actively it takes on or has certain modes 
of feeling, and that no feeling which depends up- 
on thought or knewlege is wholly confined to the 
heart? We feel increased degrees of circulation in 
the vessels of the head, and it becomes apparent 
in the whole countenance. Assuming or admit- 
ting that the operation or influence of the Spirit 
of Adoption is experienced in the heart, by what 
constitutional or physical law are we compelled to 
confine it to the heart alone? 

Almost all the advocates of religious feelings, have 
to struggle against the fact of the sinking of the feel- 
ings in regard to religion as well as in all other cases. 
When the standard of perfection is made to consist 
in a constant feeling of the Spirit's influence, the 
changes and suspensions which take place are re- 
ferred to various causes without supposing that one 
cause may be found in the mind itself. Strong sen- 
tient action o r emotion cannbf be Ion " kept uo« with- 



THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION. 477 

out affecting the thinking organs. The law of stim- 
ulus or excitement holds universally, whatever 
may be the cause. After a certain time the feelings 
subside. This is daily witnessed in sleep. Deprived 
of this natural repose the mind becomes deranged. 
The generality of persons cannot endure strong spi- 
ritual or religious emotion or action for two parts of 
a day, though they might sleep well for a third part 
All preternatural or spiritual excitement fatigues the 
mind in vigorous health, and when health fails soon 
prostrates its energies. 

Persons who pay little or no regard to mind or 
thought in religion, have been reproached for living 
by frames of feeling — all up or all down — and have 
given rise to doubts respecting the reality of experi- 
mental religion. The spirit spoken of in the text which 
God sends forth into the heart crying Abba, Father, 
we doubt not may be felt in the heart ; and also that 
it is desirable it should be strongly felt so as to elicit 
emphatically the expression Abba, Father. Strong 
and ardent feelings seek to give themselves vent in 
some corresponding expression. So David moved 
with grief for the loss of his son cried out, — Oh, Ab- 
salom my son ! And Thomas in joyful surprise ex- 
claimed, —My Lord and my God ! He who feels 
fully confident of his sonship may cry, — Oh, my 
father, my father ! 

'Tis love, 'tis love, 
I hear the whisper in my heart ; 

The morning breaks, 

The shadows flee, — 
Pure universal love thou art- 



478 DISCOURSE TWENTY-SECOND. 

The mind as we suppose partakes in fact of the feel- 
ing of love ; the morning breaks and the shadows 
flee from it also. The transition from feeling to think- 
ing or from thinking to feeling isnot naturally violent 
nor painful. There is no long break or vacuum. 
And if we are not always conscious of the relations 
and changes, they may be real. So objects may real- 
ly pass before our senses without our perceiving or 
recollecting them. The laws of the mind and of 
the senses are not merely mechanical. 

A crisis in the experience of one who is adopted 
as a son, may have come. All is calm and still and 
without feeling within. The heart seems cold and 
even dead. How many sad strains have been sung 
to express this doubtful state or to condole with it ! 
— how many prayers have been offered up for re- 
lief, and how many promises applied with arguments 
and reasons to enforce them — and all upon the sup- 
position of some mystery in the operation of grace, 
without once suspecting the possibility that the think- 
ing faculty may have been acted on until its power 
to act is exhausted or that a wrong direction may 
have been given to it. The habitually pious who 
think correctly and steadily upon this glorious plan 
of redemption and salvation by grace through faith, 
though they may have their seasons of ecstacy and 
their quiescent states, have not those distressing 
scenes of gloom and dejection ; for if their mental 
powers are too much exhausted to rise to ecstacy, 
the Spirit of Truth is to them as a spirit of thought 
and reflection. It is an error as we suppose to place 
the word of truth in opposition to the spirit of truth , 
as the letter that killeth in contrast to the spirit that 
giveth life. The letter that killeth is not the letter 
of the gospel or of gospel promises. When for in- 
stance a believer thinks or reasons and reflects upon 
the spoken or written promise of adoption, it does 
not kill, it has no tendency to damp or repress the 
ardor of devotional feelings but to remove doubts 
and confirm and strengthen confidence. 



THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION. 470 

Though many of the writers in favor of religious 
experience have undervalued religious thoughts, — 
while the advocates for reason have assumed that 
the organs of thought, though supposed to be com- 
posed of nervous substance or matter, cannot feel 
and that the heart ought not in order to avoid en- 
thusiasm ; it seems to us that if we can be conscious 
of any one thing, we may be that the heart can feel 
as purely and correctly as the mind can think, when 
both are influenced and instructed by the spirit and 
the word of the gospel, and that religious feelings 
may be so powerful without being extravagant, that 
they cannot continue long in the same degree unin- 
terruptedly without exhausting the natural vigor of 
body and mind. Thus without any sin or sinful 
cause, our religious feelings may vary and be liable 
to suspensions. The great importance of feeling or 
consciousness in regard to adoption and assurance, 
must appear evident by analogy to all cases in which 
feeling or thought pertains to the same subject or case. 
We feel hunger and thirst, and we think of eating 
and drinking. But what would be the result of 
reason alone without appetite ? So Ave may love 
a person and think of the person beloved. But 
let the affection and the ideas be separated, and what 
would be the character and amount of human friend- 
ships ? Is it not of great importance that we should 
understand well the difference between the modes 
of the mind and the heart in reference to goodness? 
Can any one love any good and not think about it ? 
Not it is presumed for any considerable time. Can 
a person think of any good and not love it ? He 
may think of it to hate it and to oppose it, or to seek 
arguments and excuses for doing so. 

Let a child of God by adoption and grace, feel a 
full assurance of his acceptance with Cod through 
Christ ; let him stand in this grace and rejoice with 
joy unspeakable and full of glory and let his peace 
surpass all understanding. Then when he shall be- 
come calm and tranquil in his feelings let him re- 



480 DISCOURSE TWENTY-SECOND. 

flectand meditate upon the great mystery of Godliness 
in all its bearings and relations to the salvation of 
his own immortal soul, and will he not gain wis- 
dom by observation as well as by experience ? No- 
thing can be more plainly expressed than the object 
of this text, which is to show the great advantages 
that the Jews would gain by the gospel over those 
which they had under the law and that these advan- 
tages were to be common to them and the Gentiles. 

Modern Gentile believers do not perhaps fully ap- 
preciate the benefits and privileges, which sincere 
Jews as believers derived from the gospel. Those 
words, — having redeemed us from the curse of the 
law, being made a curse for us, — have an applica- 
tion to those to whom the law was given and who 
were of course under the law, — the curse being per- 
sonally and immediately pronounced against them ; 
i i C ursed is every man who contin ueth not in all things 
written in the book of the law to do them. " As stran- 
gers to the book of the law Gentiles heard not this 
curse. Speaking of the sins of the Gentiles the Apos- 
tle says ; — " the time of that ignorance God wink- 
ed at, but now commandeth all men every where to 
repent/ ' 

Though it was a great favor and honor that the 
keeping of the oracles of God was confided to the 
Jews, it involved them also in high responsibilities, 
from which by believing in Christ they were made 
free. Thankful then as we ought to be for our high 
and holy calling, we should never contemplate the 
blessings of the gospel to the descendants of Abra- 
ham according to the flesh without increasing grati- 
tude. Now the distinction between Jew and Gen- 
tile is lost in a common equality in grace, and Christ 
is All and in All. 

Cincinnati March, 1838. 



THE END. 



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